Nested in the City : Architecture and design in tune with the urban environment

Building dwellings and other structures in a city does not necessarily mean altering the city. To this end, and first and foremost, you have to accept and incorporate the urban environment. This approach means deciphering the tiniest details of the cityscape, the climate, and plenty of other factors, which will be transposed so as to create spaces designed to meet the real needs of their inhabitants as closely as possible.

This is the architectural strategy which has been adopted today by the young generation of architects in Japan. The metaphor of the “nest“, as used in Nestedin the City, does not merely reflect the adaptation of architecture to urban environment, but also the attitude of architects to the contemporary city

 
 
In the 1990’s, Japanese architects applied another approach to the city. Breaking with the pre¬vious generation, they developed an interest in the urban setting as such. After criss-crossing streets and undertaking a clearance operation, they gradually became aware that it is from this potential that a new architecture can blossom.

So the impressive task of inventorying and analyzing anonymous buildings erected in Tokyo, undertaken by the Atelier Bow-Wow (“Made in Tokyo“), ushered in a new awareness of the interactivity between urban space and constructions, culminating in new approaches to composition and human scales with regard to housing.

In his book titled Chôgôhô kenchiku zukan (“Encyclopaedia of Highly Regulated Constructions“), Yasutaka Yoshimura offers a selection of urban structures resulting from the architectural rules and regulations in force in Japan, which architects have managed to make the most of. Through projects like “Danchi Saisei“ (Renovation Project for Large Units), Mikan strives to regalvanize the urban space.

His team works in direct contact with inhabitants, including children, setting up workshops and art projects, and analyzes their patterns of behaviour in order to factor them more effectively into the design process. In this vein, we might mention other architects including Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa and Shigeru Ban, with his temporary self-built shelters.

 

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