Site Analysis - 1945 to Now

1945 - After the Bombing of Tokyo
Pink - my site

Shaded area is the blocks and buildings that survived the bombing during WWII.
The building right next to my site is the Calligraphy Museum built by Fusetsu Nakamura (1866 - 1943). He was a calligrapher and a Western style painter. His house and the storage house burnt down, but the museum and the storage house for the museum survived.

Now

1945 to Now - Transformation

The street patterns and train track pattern did not change.

Site Analysis - Shiki An 子規庵

Pink - my site, Yellow - Shiki An

Shiki An in 1899

Shiki An in 1910's

Shiki An after Kanto Earthquake in 1923

Shiki An now

Shiki An is a former home of Masaoka Shiki (1867 - 1902). He was a Japanese author, poet, literary critic and journalist in Meiji period (1868-1912). Shiki is generally known as the major figure in the development of modern Haiku poetry and also played an important role in revitalizing Tanka Poetry.

He first moved to this location in 1894. After the earthquake, the house had to be rebuilt using the old material from the original house in 1925. After the bombing of Tokyo in WWI, Shiki An was burnt down. Fortunately the "Kura" (storage house) survived as well as his work. In 1950, the Shiki An that exists now was built.

Site Analysis - mixture of East and West

Buildings associated with Zen and the site

Traffic noises and the site

Flat roof (light gray) vs. Traditional roof (dark gray)

The most important aspect of this site is the mixture of Western influence on architecture and the resistance or artifact of traditional Japanese culture. On the top, I indicated not just the old buildings, but the buildings that are associated with the traditional Japanese culture, Zen. Those are temples, shrines, Museums of Calligraphy, old comedy house, and a home of a Japanese poet.

The second diagram is showing the traffic noise. This falls under the "new" category. The darker the color is the noisier the streets are. The medium shaded lines are the train lines. The site is surrounded by major traffic noises. This is very common in Japanese urban setting.

The third diagram is to show the flat roofs and slanted, traditional roof around the site. This indicates the purpose of the each building. The buildings with flat roof is the result of Western influence and the buildings with slanted roof are either old or the resistance of the Western influence.

My NEW site

Pink: Historical sites, Green: Temples & Shrines, Blue: Institution

This site is located in front of the home of Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902), who was a Japanese author, poet, literary critic and journalist in Meiji period (1868-1912). Shiki is generally known as the major figure in the development of modern Haiku poetry and also played an important role in revitalizing Tanka Poetry.

This site is also located next to the major train lines. On the other side, there are Tokyo University of Art, Ueno Park, museums, Kaneiji temple and cemetery.

This site is important for my thesis, because of the coexistence of old and new. Across my site is the old house and right next to my site is a contemporary building for Japanese calligraphy association. The institutions that I listed above is old also. The contemporary high rise buildings can be seen in the areal view also. In order to perform the "Japan-ness" in this site, I have to incorporate both new and old that exist in this site.

Site

Site

1-24-1 Higashi Nippori Arakawa ward Tokyo, Japan

Around Jomon Era (B.C.14,500 to B.C.1,000) this area used to be under the water. The Nippori area was the only high-leveled land and used to be the cape of Tokyo bay. During the Edo period (1600 to 1867) this area was developed as an agricultural district. After entering Meiji era in 1867, many industrial facilities were erected in the area until the subway started running and the area became a residential district. After WWII, almost 45% of the land was burnt down and both residences and factories were rebuilt again. After 1989, due to the new zoning regulations, many factories left the area. After that the new development as a residential town started.

This area is close to, Asakusa, which is called “shitamachi”, which means the old part of Tokyo. Asakusa is most famous for the Senso-ji, a Buddhist temple was built in 645. There are several more temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals and old shops that still have the feeling of old Tokyo.

This site is one of the very rare sites in Tokyo that did not experience drastic transformations over time. The important transformations that it went through are the elimination of factories and WWII. The scale of the area remained relatively same, and the most important element to the site, Asakusa went through very limited transformation for 1400 years.

Analysis

This semester

- Site models showing the density in different heights

- The relationship to Asakusa

- The transformation that the site went through

- Figure ground study

- Building use

- Building height

During the break

- light study

- circulation study

- site sections

My site - site photos, site plan, site section

My grandmother's site
1-24-1 Higashi Nippori Arakawa ward Tokyo, Japan

My site - ariel photos

My grandmother's site
1-24-1 Higashi Nippori Arakawa ward Tokyo, Japan