KENZO TANGE
Tokyo bay plan
[Link]
1GQ19AT017
HOA3
TOKYO BAY
PLAN
•Architects: KENZO TANGE
•Location: TOKYO,JAPAN
•Program: URBANISM AND LANDSCAPE
•Project year: 1960
KENZO TANGE
{tokyo bay project}
Kenzo Tange’s 1960 plan for Tokyo was
proposed at a time when many cities in
the industrial world were experiencing the
height of urban sprawl. With a unique
insight into the emerging characteristics of
the contemporary city and an optimistic
faith in the power of design, Tange
attempted to impose a new physical order
on Tokyo, which would accommodate the
city’s continued expansion and internal
regeneration.
The decentralization of Tokyo
The ideals of the Metabolist Manifesto were perhaps best exhibited and advocated by Kenzo Tange in his 1960 Plan
for Tokyo. In 1958 the Tokyo Regional Plan was released, which proposed a series of satellite cities and general
decentralization as the solution to Tokyo’s rapid population boom (rising from 3.5 million in 1945 to 10 million in
1960).
Tange argued that the movement that the automobile introduced into urban life had changed peoples’ perception of
space and that this required a new spatial order for the city in the form of the megastructure, not merely a
continuation of the radial zoning status quo. He proposed a linear megastructure based on a ‘fixed’ open network of
highways and subways around which a ‘transient’ program would create as the needs of the population dictated. The
scheme, featuring a linear series of interlocking loops expanding Tokyo across the bay, has often been regarded as
initiating the decade-long megastructural movement.
Kenzo Tange declared the goals of his Plan of Tokyo
redevelopment:
[Link] shift from a radial centripetal system to a system of linear
development.
[Link] find a means of bringing the city structure, the
transportation
system, and urban architecture into an organic unity.
[Link] find a new urban spatial order that would reflect the open
organization and the spontaneous mobility of contemporary
society.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Kenzo Tange’s Tokyo expansion project is divided the design into four major parts:
1) The connection between Tokyo and the proposed linear expansion:
The first step in creating the civic axis is the construction of a cycle transportation system in a height of 40 meters above existing Tokyo that only touches the
ground at points of interchanges. This system connects to all major highways and railroads. The plan shows the beautiful integration of the new transportation
system into the existing one.
2) The traffic circulation along the civic axis:
The traffic circulation system is detached from the ground and suggests a strong separation between traffic and pedestrians. It is designed to carry up to
5,000,000 people daily. The grid on which the street system is based on consists of squares with side length of one kilometer. The system allows for a
step by step expansion from Tokyo to the other side of Tokyo bay. Public buildings are located between the two parallel highways while residential
areas are attach from the outside.
3) The two main shapes of business buildings:
The business buildings are also detached from the ground and sit on so called "cores" that are organized on a grid consisting of squares with side length
of 200 meters. The height of the core's ranges among 150 and 200 meters and leaves approximately 40 meters open space below the buildings. While
one of the building types (A) relies strictly on the grid the other (B) has the shape of a spine pointing to public open spaces.
4) The perpendicular organic growth of the residential area:
The residential buildings (C) are attached to the civic axis through a perpendicular street system. Like leaves of a tree the residential area seems to
grow away from the civic axis. The buildings reside on huge platforms on the water and propose the old relationship between the population of Tokyo
and the sea. The buildings appear random in size and position but alike in shape .
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
Section of the city of Tokyo
The urban Plan for
Tokyo
