Tokyo Architecture

joey: 11th Jan 2006 - 04:52 GMT

well . . . there's nothing like this in oakland . . . the sprawl looks more like los angeles

Jamie: 11th Jan 2006 - 16:45 GMT

i particularly like the view of the seemingly endless urban sprawl you get in this photo. it certainly does look a lot like LA to my mind and totally not what i imagine tokyo to look like. The way you show Tokyo in your photos, it could be any city. Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome

jack: 11th Jan 2006 - 18:29 GMT

im amazed at how the japanese are able to copy the worlds great structures and recreate it in their city. shinjuku could be new york city. sunset on tokyo tower could be paris at night. shinjuku's office tower that slants outwardly is like our building in ny on 42nd st on the west side. japan is beautiful. now they need a collesium

jeeff: 12th Jan 2006 - 00:46 GMT

the thing that sets tokyo apart from others is its sheer size and density. tokyo's population density is 3x higher than new york city. any one of these photos shows only a tiny bit of the city's full size. i think it's something you can't quite grasp until you've been there.

ps. thanks for more great tokyo photos chris j. i walked along that stretch of showa-dori in nihombashi many times (i worked right at ginza san-chome crossing).

adam: 26th Jan 2006 - 02:56 GMT

i wouldnt say theyre copying other cities.. atleast not as bad as themed copying in las vegas

awesome photo set tho

BAHADIR: 3rd Mar 2006 - 14:24 GMT

If we want to see a metropolitan city that is full of buildings, we must visit tokyo.But if you want to see a metropolitan city thats with nature we must to visit Istanbul.Tokyo has a good architecture about towers and we can understand that from the photos.Thank you very much.

aer suzuki: 15th Sep 2006 - 12:40 GMT

very, very cool photos. tokyo is a city i'm always curious about, and probably will be until i get a chance to visit it myself, thanks for the post.

tec: 16th Oct 2006 - 18:47 GMT

The thing that i like most is that it got the most fasinating cars in the world that i like

drewie: 16th Jan 2007 - 11:01 GMT

Beautiful views, I would like to ave this viws in barcelona

colavitos ghost: 1st Dec 2007 - 01:33 GMT

this might be the best citynoise post ever made.

Geethu: 15th Feb 2008 - 13:03 GMT

I never thought tokyo is something like this. Not very diffrent from a fully urbanized european city. Can't beleve anybody can live without visinity of lush green and rain drops.

dboy: 23rd Mar 2008 - 02:48 GMT

Just to nit-pick ... By a fraction, Tokyo Midtown is the highest tower in central Tokyo and 4th highest in Japan. I was lucky enough to work there when it was finished last year, the views from the 40th floor?, well ....

jay shankar: 17th Sep 2008 - 11:10 GMT

beautifull like heaven, rainforest of concrete.

bob: 19th Oct 2008 - 01:15 GMT

i like the View of Shinjuku from the Ebisu Garden Place Tower

elizabeth john: 5th Nov 2008 - 13:33 GMT

well just to add on, i ve been studying on this city as part of a college project...
To me, tokyo has different faces to it.like it does have a huge number of parks, which seem to be conserved and maintained well.at the same time it seems to be a victim of urban sprawl.
these picture are really nice and your information has been of great use to me.

Marco: 29th Oct 2009 - 01:47 GMT

tokyo is not just skyscrapers even though those are the buildings that stand out in the center of the city.
The bulk of this city is made of middle-rise buildings and the more you go out of the center, the more of detached houses with wooden structure and 2 floors height you will find.
While this latter fact is a common trait to many cities around the world, what is unique to Tokyo is the mix of functions and building types in every area regardless of its position.
This is due to the Japanese urban planning laws and the building code that since 1923 have always had a very loose definition of zoning.
Infact, besides few areas that were reserved for exclusive industrial use, almost all other zoning categories allowed factories to co-exist in the same areas with residential, commercial and office buildings causing a great deal of problems later in the 70`s.
From the start the legislation`s goal was not strict amministrative control of urban development (like was in other countries). Moreover the fact that urban planning policies have always been (until recently) exceptionally centralized meant that the central government (colluded with the big business) has focused its priority on promoting industrial development while leaving behind things like orderly urban planning, appropriate amount of green and services.
Legal loopholes allowed the most of Tokyo to be privately built without a building permit or without the need to contribute to infrastructure expenses like sewage and roads. Until the 80`s most of the detached houses in the outskirt were yet not connected to a sewage line and relied on septic tanks.
The small size of the streets and the density that you see now in Tokyo is the result of tens of years of this kind of planning.

Yet what it strikes in Tokyo is again the contrast between this kind of environment, that in other countries would have been damned by social and economic problems, and the vitality that instead shows off.
Density here does not translate automatically into a lack of quality and everyone that has gone to the most dense quarters of Tokyo can attest to their social and economic vitality.
That reminds that a city is not only its buildings.

Japanese people have been used since Edo period to cope with what they had and provide themselves the necessary services and amenity for urban living.
The same is still happening now.
The funny thing is that some of the new central quarters, arised from urban renovation projects like Shiodome Italia on an old railway yard, are neglected by either the young population and also the business community.

Now legislation changed, decentralization is being implemented and citizen participation to urban planning issues also is again increasing.
We might see a better Tokyo in the years to come.

From the mere architectural point of view Tokyo is a treasure chest, because of the few but important traditional buildings that are still standing, because of the modern architecture (including Le Corbusier`s) and because of the parade of contemporary architecture (most of the best architects built something here) that dots this great city.

Sorry if I took too long...but I could`t help it.

alma: 28th May 2010 - 07:18 GMT

The most Amazing city in the world!
Tokyo is so Cool you'll find it hard to believe!
http://www.tokyo-top-guide.com/

Jan: 15th Apr 2011 - 22:00 GMT

This looks really amazing. I aspire to be an Urban planner one day, finding ways to make a really cool city... eheh
But uuh... doesn't Tokyo have smog alerts like H.K?

Prateek: 8th Aug 2012 - 09:05 GMT