Ueno Park in Tokyo Downtown North represents a 19th Century vision of culture and nature. The area encompasses several museums and cultural institutions, including the city’s zoo and the National Museum of Western Art, the only building by Le Corbusier in Japan, as well as the University of Tokyo and Tokyo University of the Arts.
The studio was designed to challenge the trend toward lavish developments and the increasing privatization of the public domain by shifting the emphasis from the economies of scale to the economies of scope. It is an approach characterized by variety rather than volume and sensitivity to the needs of local neighborhoods and residents.
For the Loebs, the trip was a mix of structured activities and inquiry with the students and self-guided experience. Fellows came armed with their curiosity and diverse personal interests: the Japanese relationship to nature, disaster preparedness, the physical and social infrastructure that support the needs of the youngest and the oldest segments of the population. The Loebs wanted to know about the structures of urban policy and governance in order to understand how the state responds to the needs of its people. They were looking for the arts counterculture, street culture and, of course, food culture and food systems. They were keen to navigate the streets and transit system and to see how Japan mediates the juxtaposition of the old world and the new.
Photos are courtesy of Mavis Gragg, Kannan Thiruvengadam, and Susan Ocitti Mahoney.
