Field Actions Science Reports

The journal of field actions

Special Issue 18 | 2018
Resilient Cities

Empowering “Small Flows” in the urban fabric:

experiences from Japan
Hidetoshi Ohno

Electronic version
URL: http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/4817
ISSN: 1867-8521

Publisher
Institut Veolia

Printed version
Date of publication: 15 December 2018
Number of pages: 40-45
ISSN: 1867-139X

Electronic reference
Hidetoshi Ohno, « Empowering “Small Flows” in the urban fabric: experiences from Japan », Field
Actions Science Reports [Online], Special Issue 18 | 2018, Online since 15 December 2018, connection
on 21 April 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/4817

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

 www.factsreports.org

EMPOWERING
In the context of “Shrinking Cities”
experiencing a decrease in population and
facing multiple and globalized risks, the

“SMALL FLOWS” IN theory of urbanism must be reconsidered.

Current urban planning relying on
“big flows” needs to be challenged to
THE URBAN FABRIC: empower local solutions and help tackle
the environmental, social and economic

experiences from Japan challenges that lie ahead, notably in Japan.

While big flows rely on a further, faster,
larger-scale philosophy, with externalities
Hidetoshi Ohno that economically exclude marginal
Architect, Emeritus Professor, University of Tokyo
territories, small flows, on the contrary,
seek to strengthen urban resilience and
foster economic development through local
solutions. Smaller urban interventions in
the urban fabric could indeed help cities
survive in the age of shrinkage. The scale
and the responsiveness of small flow
projects – three examples from Japan from
senior mobility to corporate housing are
presented here – allow their management
to be accessible to small organizations,
to reflect local diversity and to be easily
accessed by the public while achieving
socio-economic impact.

Aerial view of K-TOWN

K-TOWN was designed by the author and APLdw. Photo by Toshiharu Kitajima, 2017

Born in 1949, Hidetoshi Ohno is Emeritus Professor at the

University of Tokyo and the principal of the architectural firm APL
design workshop. He published Fibercity Tokyo 2050’in 2006.
In the updated publication in 2016 Fiber City, A Vision for Cities
in the Age of Shrinkage, he proposes a new theory of urbanism
for shrinking cities in the post-industrial era, connecting “fiber INTRODUCTION
units” in the city to redesign the information, transportation, Many cities face risks. In Japan, a city such
and industrial networks, as well as the landscape. Hidetoshi as To k yo will exp e rie n c e – a m o n g oth e r
Ohno is a member of JIA (Japan Institute of Architects) and risks – a rapid decrease of population and
AIJ (Architectural Institute of Japan). deterioration of infrastructure. In the Age of
Shrinkage, urban planning and architecture
need to be reconsidered in the megacity as
well as smaller-scale cities. During the 21st
century, “Big Flow” – meaning the flow of things
“ further, faster and on a large scale” – has
become predominant within cities. However,
for cities to become more resilient, it seems
important to empower “smaller flows” meaning
KEYWORDS connecting smaller “fiber units” with each other
and changing the urban structure through small
• URBAN FABRIC
interventions in the urban fabric. Three examples
• ARCHITECTURE
• FLOWS
of urban interventions that favor Small Flow over
Big Flow are presented in this article.

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denying that even the physically and financially

1. CONTEXT IN JAPAN: CHALLENGES OF SHRINKING weak should b e able to live in comfor t in a
CITIES AND CURRENT URBAN PLANNING democratic country. Mobility is one of the most
fundamental conditions of life.
1-1. THE THREE CHALLENGES FACED BY JAPAN
(2) Among natural disasters, earthquakes and
Japan is facing three big risks: (1) demographic change, (2) natural
subsequent disasters like fires and tsunamis (tidal
disasters and (3) public debt.
wave) are the biggest menace to Japan. Typhoons
(1) Concerning demographic change in Japan, depopulation and also cause storms, floods and landslides. They
the aging population are serious issues. The birthrate in Japan is attack the Japanese archipelago every summer
still less than 1.5. Japan’s population is predicted to fall to 60 million and fall. Apar t from them, the countr y also
by the end of this century (in other words, half of the present sometimes experiences volcanic eruptions. It
figure according to the medium-fertility assumption). The elderly is nearly impossible to predict the occurrence
population will be nearly 40 million before the year 2060, or 40% of and intensity of an earthquake and it costs a lot
the entire population at that time. [Fig.1] of money and time to prepare measures against
them, as it is not sufficient to reinforce a building
Depopulation causes industrial production to drop and the market
alone and it is necessary to reorganize the city for
to shrink. In the city, there will come to be more and more vacant
safety in the event of a big earthquake.
houses, closed shops and unused public facilities. As income from
taxes falls, governments will not be able to afford the expenses of In terms of disaster mitigation, planners are
maintaining civic facilities. zealous about realizing their ideal and assume
a strong hatred of the real city in front of them.
The increase in the elderly population may also cause production to drop
High seawalls are being constructed in the coastal
and raise governmental expenditures on medical and nursing care.
cities and villages attacked by the 2011 Tohoku
It also means that, on the household level, many elderly people may earthquake and tsunami. The biggest problem
become single and some may even live in poverty. Still, there is no with such high sea walls is that it is not possible

Demographic structure of Japan (estimate in 2012)

Source: Graph drawn by Ohno Laboratory, University of Tokyo, with data adapted from: Government of Japan Cabinet Office,
http://www8.cao.go.jp/kourei/whitepaper/w-2013/zenbun/index.html. (Reference is written in Japanese) Figure 1

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to construct and maintain the same kind of information and energy, among others. Looking back, human
seawall along every coast in Japan, even though history can be described as a history of technical innovations for Big
most of the cities along the Pacific Ocean face Flow. For example, technical progress in ship building and sailing
equally dangerous chances of tsunamis. The only made geographical discoveries possible and brought gold as well as
realistic measure for disaster prevention may be a tomatoes and potatoes to Europe. They yielded enormous wealth
combination of physical and non-physical means. to the Iberian Peninsula and enriched European dining. Richard
Japan, in this sense, is far too inclined toward Arkwright created power by using the flow of the river to make cotton
physical measures – in other words, construction. clothes an affordable commodity. The Industrial Revolution laid the
grounds for a world empire for Great Britain.
(3) A s fo r f i n a n c ia l p ro b l e m s , m o s t O EC D
countries have some form of debt, but Japan’s Before the mid-19 th centur y, Japan was divided into quasi-
debt is ex traordinarily large and increasing. independent domains under a feudal system. It was after the civil
It exceeds twice its GDP. Statesmen say that war that the modern constitutional monarchy was established. One
this unhealthy financial situation is the result of the first measures taken by the new central government was
of the increasing cost of medical and nursing laying out the railway and postal systems.
expenditures as well as interest payments. But In the 1920s, suburbanization started in Japan. Railway systems
public construction should also be added as a connecting the city center and the suburbs made it possible for the
reason for this debt. Japan developed into the middle class to live away from the city center and gave them fresh
second largest economy in the world in a short air and life among the greenery. With this big change in city form, a
period of time after the Second World War. The businessman called Mr. Ichizõ Kobayashi [Fig.4] devised a business
key to this achievement was the government- model for suburban development.
guided development of industries and a Keynesian
policy. The improvement of public facilities as a The Shinkansen was the first bullet train in the world, developed by
Keynesian strategy is extremely effective when Japan. It was for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and was developed
infrastructures are not yet fully developed, as as a means of connecting the two main areas in Japan – the Tokyo
in Japan in the 60s and 70s. The construction of metropolitan area and the Kansai area, which includes Osaka, Kyoto,
social infrastructure directly stimulates economic and Kobe. The fastest train prior to it had taken 6.5 hours between
activity and improves living standards. On the Tokyo and Osaka, while the Shikansen required only three hours.
other hand, the success of this policy led to the Since then, the Shinkansen network has been constantly expanded
mistaken belief that city planning meant planning to cover the four main islands of Japan.
the construction of urban facilities. It is important that speed can change domestic geopolitics. When
These three challenges – demography, natural movement between cities was limited to railways traveling about
disasters and public debt – are, in a sense, unique 100 kilometers per hour, multiple cities serving as commercial
to Japan. However, some common problems and cultural centers could coexist within a single prefecture. But
inherent to the 21st century can also be observed. when travel speeded up to 200 kilometers per hour, many of those
Those regions where the birth rate is high will not cities fell by the wayside. Only a limited number of cities such as
be able to maintain their productivity when they get Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Yokohama, Niigata, Kanazawa, Nagoya,
rich. Countries enjoying economic prosperity will Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka have prospered; each dominates a large
not be able to grow forever. It is also important that
every region on earth should worry about global
warming problems today. Generally speaking, Development strategy
growth and development will not be the same as along the Hankyu Railway
in the 20th century. Many regions will sooner or
later experience the same difficulties that Japan
faces now. These difficulties are derived from
the transition from growth to decrease, or from
expansion to shrinkage. The biggest challenge in
the 21st century is how humanity can overcome
this unprecedented transition.

1-2. PREDOMINANCE OF BIG FLOW OVER

SMALL FLOW
A nother problem in the 21 st centur y is the
predominance of “Big Flow,” which has become
more and more overwhelming over the years.
Big Flow can be defined as the flow of things
“further, faster and on a larger scale.” This “flow” Source: Drawn by Ohno Laboratory, University of Tokyo,
“Fibercity Tokyo 2050”, The Japan Architect 63, 2006, p.77 Figure 4
includes transportation as well as the economy,

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commercial sphere of influence that extends beyond prefectural everything except for the wages of the local home
borders. Big Transportation has developed by wiping out Small delivery service employees is swallowed up by
Transportation at the same time. Streetcars operated in 67 cities the company headquartered in Seattle; this also
in Japan from the 1930s through the 1950s, and closely-knit bus includes the consumption tax. Big Flow sucks dry
networks had also existed. local economic vitality and weakens localities.
When we rely solely on Big Flow, we eventually
What happened with the Shikansen is that most small and medium
undermine our own economic environment.
sized cities have declined in exchange for the prosperity of a small
number of cities. After the Shinkansen began its operations, There are many flows in the human body, for
former main lines were demoted to local lines. There were many instance, breathing, eating, sweating and blood
cities on former main lines where the limited express train service circulation. Blood runs in a system of veins. It is
was abolished and a Shikansen station was not built. These hierarchically organized, its capillaries are very
cities declined. fine and it spreads densely. Big Flow seems to
The automobile has affected contemporary city form in much the choke these capillaries.
same way as the railway. Because the prewar suburbia established
by Ichizõ Kobayashi was formulated on the railway transportation
system, it had a linear confi guration. The contemporary suburbia
formulated on automobile transportation, however, has a dispersed
configuration like a nebula.
2. THREE PROJECTS TO EMPOWER
Development of the Internet has accelerated the velocity of
SMALL FLOWS AT THE CITY LEVEL
information. It has enlarged the retail industry. Thanks to the online As described above, every city – at least cities in
retailer Amazon, anyone – even someone living in a remote, rural a mature society – faces a few big questions. One
area – can purchase books from the world’s biggest bookstore. is how the city can survive in the age of shrinkage.
Although this may seem like a dream come true, it is a nightmare The other is how the city can empower Small Flow
for local economies. When a purchase is made from Amazon, under the predominance of Big Flow. Modernistic

Green partition - One of the proposed urban improvement strategies implemented

through the intervention of fibers

Source: Drawn by Ohno Laboratory, University of Tokyo,

“Fibercity Tokyo 2050”, The Japan Architect 63, 2006, p.36 Figure 6

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city planning cannot deal with such questions. would be minimized and precedence given to the safe evacuation of
This is the reason why we need new urbanism. inhabitants to secure, open spaces. In order to achieve this goal,
On e prospective answer is to develop a method hazardous areas should be finely divided by green partitions that will
of changing (improving, adapting, adjusting) the help arrest the spread of fires.
urban structure through small interventions in the
In the course of time, as empty land becomes available, it can be
urban fabric.
absorbed into the green partition, with parts of it being converted to
These three projects that I have led, presented areas of refuge and others used as evacuation routes. At the same
b e l o w, a r e r e l e v a n t t o t h i s i d e a o f s m a l l time, the green partition will introduce vegetation into areas that lack
interventions. it, bringing life to artificially barren lands. To make this plan a reality,
8% of the land in each district will need to be converted to these
2-1 FIBERCITY: A VISION FOR CITIES IN THE AGE OF proposed green partitions. This will cause land values to increase
SHRINKAGE and offset the loss of properties used toward the construction of
The first project is a book entitled Fibercity, these green partitions.
published in 2016.
2-2 SMALL MOBILITY FAIR
This is a polemical and pragmatic book that The second project, “Next Mobility bazaar” is a fair for small mobility
includes urban projects for the reorganization services organized in Kurobe in 2017.
of Tokyo and Nagaoka to maintain their vitality,
even in the age of shrinkage. [Fig.5] Fibercity is In a few decades, Japan’s elderly population will constitute 40% of
also a planning theory dealing with existing cities the national population. Although most of the elderly will not need
that attempts to control place and flow inside care at a nursing home, walking around will still not be an easy
cities simultaneously through the manipulation task for many of them. When people become old, their cognitive
of relatively small linear elements that I call capacities more or less weaken. Newspapers often report on
“fibers.” Eleven projects are proposed in the book. traffic accidents caused by the elderly. Some drive their cars on
Green Partition is one of them. Green Partition the opposite lane, while others step on the gas pedal instead of
is a strategy by which the spread of fires after the brakes.
earthquakes is arrested by dividing high-risk In addition to their individual conditions, the urban condition
disaster areas into small sections with long, also becomes inconvenient for such people. All enterprises, from
narrow green belts. [Fig.6] supermarkets to family restaurants and fast food stores, are
Victims of earthquake debris do not constitute concentrated in shopping malls or along bypasses in cities that are
the greatest number of earthquake casualties in premised on the ownership and use of automobiles. As a result,
Japan. Rather, the highest number of casualties there has been an increase in areas where people without access to
to date have occurred due to fires caused by automobiles also lack access to their daily meals. People who lack
earthquakes in the Tokyo metropolitan area in such access are referred to as “shopping refugees” in Japan, while
1923 and Kobe in 1995. Because most of the such areas are called “food deserts” in England. Some people feel
houses at the time were wood constructed, they helpless in a society so overly dependent on the automobile.
were light but flammable. In an aging society, some utopian ideas of mobility conceived in the
As fires after earthquakes occur in many places age of growth may sometimes become dystopian. For example,
simultaneously, fighting such fires is very hard. It there is a housing estate in a suburb of Tokyo that was planned on
the idea of a cul-de-sac in the 70s. As the central area of the estate
is therefore important to replace such flammable
is reserved for pedestrians only, residents are forced to walk in their
structures with fire-resistant structures and
everyday lives. Many residents who bought their homes here in
firebreaks to prevent these fires from spreading.
the 70s have become old and find it difficult to walk. A non-profit
Improvement measures for such flammable organization has started to help them with a bicycle taxi service.
districts have been two-fold up until now: road
Professionals of the physical environment should be obliged to create
widening and consolidating narrow housing
a society where any disabled person can go where they want, when
lots to create fire-resistant collective housing
they want. The Next Mobility community, led by the author, has held, a
complexes. Road widening projects have been
fair inviting many organizations dealing with small mobility services/
implemented by local governments in an effort to
products, even for infants and young adults, twice in different cities.
create firebreaks to prevent fires from spreading,
A further goal is to create a forum for engineers and companies
improve access for fire-fighting vehicles, and
interested in small mobility. The objective of this exhibition is to
secure escape routes for inhabitants.
demonstrate people’s right to move about, especially for the weak
But in fact, it not only takes an enormous amount such as the elderly, children and those who do not have a driver’s
of time to expropriate residents along the planned license or a car. This is a question of human rights or democracy.
roads, but the project budget swells as the cost Everyone should be given the opportunity to move when and where
of expropriating increases. With our proposal, they like. What is needed is a kind of mobility somewhere between the
even if a disaster were to strike, the spread of fire automobile and foot. This is the idea behind “small mobility.” [Fig.8]

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Mrs. Uchiyama began to experience pain in her knee 10 years ago With this shift, they needed to move many of their
when she was 65 years old. She tried to find an easy vehicle but staff to Kurobe. This was the reason for developing
none of the ready-made, motorized wheelchairs attracted her. a new dormitory in Kurobe.
So she decided to make what she liked on her own. She started a
Just as YKK thought, excessive concentration in
development process with engineers and converted her factory in
any one place may make a company vulnerable.
China, where they used to manufacture paper strings for ceremonial
Diversity is often the key for yielding dynamism.
occasions, into a factory for her product. Finally she succeeded
This is the reason why YKK’s strateg y is so
in creating a very compact and user-friendly motorized scooter.
attractive in Japan. Many enterprises hesitate
According to her, since this kind of vehicle is subsidized as a welfare
to go out to local cities, even though they can
machine by the national nursing care insurance, major manufacturers
maintain easy accessibility to Tokyo through ICT,
can set high prices for them. Their supposed users are therefore
bullet train and airplane. And what’s more, they
capable of affording them. However, people who are eligible for the
can also save money.
insurance need to be officially recognized as people requiring long-
term care. Unfortunately, most of these people have likely already The most noticeable aspect of this project is that
lost their drive to go out. She believes those who really need this kind the dormitory’s configuration is different from
of mobility machine are those for whom care is not yet required. Such those of conventional dormitories. The most
people, however, must purchase the machine by themselves — in popular configuration for a company dormitory
other words, without being subsidized by insurance. Mrs. Uchiyama is an enclosed arrangement. This segregates the
therefore strived to provide her machine for an affordable price and dormitory from its neighborhood. Our proposed
succeeded in doing so. While autonomous car technologies may be plan integrates dormitor y residents into the
useful for such elderly people, the elderly should also activate their neighborhood. YKK chose this site near the railway
muscles and brains as much as possible. Because when we stop using station as a means of revitalizing the declining
our body, it will easily begin to weaken and fail. area by bringing in a younger population. As
mentioned earlier, in most local cities, people like
2-3 K-TOWN to live in newly developed areas where automobile
The third project developed with APL design workshop is a life is easier.
company dormitory in a town called Kurobe.
Kurobe is a small town with a population of about 40,000. It
contains the factory campuses of YKK, an international company
that manufactures zippers and building components such as
window sashes.
The YKK headquarter is in Tokyo, but they decided to move half of
their headquarter functions to Kurobe for risk diversification after
the Tohoku earthquake in 2011. CONCLUSION
These three projects deal with different kinds of
flows presented in different manners.
The first project presents a general theory about
Diagram for comparing two models small interventions into the urban fabric with
several strategies. In the second project, a new
for the company dormitory type of flow that is manageable by the weak
enters into the scene of public mobility. In the third
project, a flow of younger people appears in a
stagnant city center through a private company’s
initiative and architectural presentation.
The strength of small interventions is that they
can be managed even by a citizen group, small
municipality or small corporation. They reflect
the diversity in society and preserve some
aspects of the uniqueness of local cultures. They
can be easily comprehended and accessed by
the public. Moreover, inconvenient results can
likely be corrected because urban reformation
through a limited scale of intervention is inevitably
Autonomous Community-integrated incremental. They help provide some room in
spatial model spatial model  a world virtually dominated by the cruelty of
“Big Flow.”
Source: Drawn by APLdw, 2017 Figure 11

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