IN-PERSON Barcelona Livable Cities. Section A

Abstract

As social isolation caused by “High-density sprawl(P. Calthorpe)” has been argued, a pleasant form of neighbourhood development to activate ground-level activities in buildings and public spaces has been discussed. However, in reality, there are countries where large-scale development relying on high-rise buildings is widespread. In the Tokyo Metropolitan area in Japan, this tendency is prominent due to the need for economic efficiency and maximizing the population with connectivity to the public transport system. It would be desirable to provide developers with a visualization of the impact of the accumulation of such development. However, such research has yet to be conducted so far. Therefore, this research aims to quantify the extent of impacts on land use at the neighbourhood scale in central Tokyo (23 wards) due to the “Urban Renewal Special Zones” where urban planning regulations were relaxed and to clarify the features of the development layout plans by the Special Zones. First, we applied the analytical methods of landscape ecology. This science analyzes landscape patterns that significantly impact ecosystems. We apply this to quantify the changes in ground-level land use over the past 20 years. In addition, to clarify the layout advantages and problems focusing on station area projects that have particularly influenced ground-floor level activity, we compared their planning methods and outcomes to recent developments based on the well-known European TOD and X min city concepts qualitatively.