tokyo.parallellt.se

night: city with lights

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 10:13:00 +0000

As seen from Dentsu Tower.

in an elevator, descending

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 08:57:00 +0000

Photos from the Dentsu Tower by Jean Nouvel.

views from a flood wall

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 09:40:00 +0000

Along the flood wall separating the Arakawa (a large river in Tokyo) from the city a series of low views can be obtained. Here I focus on looking towards the citys dense low rise developments. The height of the view from more or less the 4th story level makes for an interesting angle of the city.

Scale order and ground cover.

T crossing on street and T on building.

The brutal lightness of the electricity distribution system.

A house with a tower.

A series of scales in the distance - towering them all is Tokyo Skytree.

An urban wall of buildings along a major road.

Nihon Minka-en

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Sun, 25 Aug 2013 09:28:00 +0000

The space between inside and outside.

A few pictures from Nihon Minka-en (Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum).

Wraps around the house, a small courtyard exists between the slope and the house.

They have multiple functions.

The roof of a house.

A series of spaces.

A clear source of inspiration for Fujimori. The green plants on tops of the roof. Also, as Fujimori points out, one of Corbusier's principles for architecture is the plant on the (flat roof).

A green roof.

along the arakawa - shuto expressway

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 19:11:00 +0000

Trucks meeting in the air. Along the Arakawa, a river flowing through the north and east of Tokyo23, the C2 outer loop of the Shuto Expressway is realized high above ground level.

A number of different system of infrastructure follows the river. Lets explore some in this post.

Some bridge are quite beautiful structural systems, some a more built..

Other follow the more mundane logic of the japanese high way construction. A system optimized for series of constraints, structural logic not being the only one. The effects on the structure may at times seem strange.

Edges.

Escape stair.

The placement of supports and the flowing structure of the road differ.

The scale.

A different logic. Stable and flowing form.

The uneven geometry.

A more focused view of the bridge above.

Notice the length the bridge spans in this slight less optimized bridge.

A mess of bridges in an intersection.

The number of overlapping considerations in these stairs.

The motorway splits.

And we end with view of the sheer height of the expressway.

Two views from the expressway.

water 3 - flood wall

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 13:04:00 +0000

Urban window.

A view through an urban window shows visual reality of the urban situation. On the other side you could perhaps find a garden.

A view from a bridge crossing the tributary.

Zoomed out view of the urban window.

The mess of expressway, river, and city. Structure and movement. Fluid and fixed motions interleaved.

water 2.1: pumping station

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:06:00 +0000

One the powered pumps. Part 2.1 of water.

View from control room.

Outside view.

The river and perfectly clean infrastructure.

Machine room.

Diagrams with various goals and levels of explanation are spread through the facility. Gas-turbine.

Pump and engine.

And finally a sectional view thorough the facility.

water 2: underground

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:24:00 +0000

Monumental scale of infrastructure. Perhaps one of the best pictures of this blog.

The parts of the greater Tokyo area located on the Kanto plain are cut through by a series of rivers. Due to the proximity of the mountains, large amounts of rains when it a typhoon strikes, and quite short rivers they are very prone to flooding. To help relieve the problems with flooding there is infrastructure for moving large quantities of water between rivers, like in the center of the city in the previous post. This chamber has been featured is series of media, like commercials. To read more see here.
The pump station is powered by a series of jet turbines to provide the extreme amount of power necessary.

The entrance to the buffer, behind a football field covering the top of the buffer resovoir.

water 1: Kanda River Underground Regulating Resovoir Under the Loop Road 7

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:08:00 +0000

Garbage accumulating in flood reservoir.
Along Kandagawa, one of the rivers I used to run along, one can observe one of the visible signs of an hidden kind of infrastructure dealing with one the naturals disasters the Tokyo area has to deal with, flooding.

When the water rises due to large amount of rains being led to the river the river overflows.

Pump station.

The diagram explains how the water is pumped from one river to another to even out and prevent flooding.

Another sign road sign close to the next river to the north, Zenpukiji-gawa.

views (blur)

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Mon, 27 May 2013 09:38:00 +0000

The chaotic nature of the suburban landscape.

A mess of roofs an density.

Singular act of scale shift combined with linear nature of urban firewalls.

Open space. A driving school.

flood wall garden

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Mon, 27 May 2013 08:38:00 +0000

A street side collection of plants.

On the other side of the flood wall a small tributary to the Arakawa – a big river in the Kanto plain.

And is covered by another level of infrastructure.

maximum (Escher)

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Sun, 26 May 2013 08:30:00 +0000

Another example of odd an Tokyo building complying with legal requirements proposed by the zoning system. The visual effect is slightly Escher like.

Soshigaya-Okura at night.

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:30:00 +0000

Light/dark in alley leading to the famously long shotengai.

Bar on the side.

Styled wall.

Impossible collection of objects and structure.

Small alley with signs.

Covered street with signs.

The Shotengai. Full of pedestrian activity in scale the makes it more active.

This shared space.

train, rain, blur (long post)

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:02:00 +0000

Moving through the city in different ways change how you perceive it. From the raised tracks of Odakyu main line we take look at a part of Setagaya.

Buildings close to the track, construction.

Going up the distant view becomes prominent.

A house.

Roof terrace.

A street.

Again close, small road.

Small apartments.

Roofs.

Small house - fake balcony.

Construction, wooden frame.

The many roof planes of a small Tokyo house.

The volumes irregular nature.

Different colored roofs.

A cemetery.

A view along an alley.

Typological mixture of suburbia.

Mess?

Church.

Warehouse.

Roof infrastructure. Post terminal (small).

River road. Gas.

Buildings, programatic difference.

Window placement.

Concrete.

Sudden void.

Parking.

Stair over building.

Field.

Close.

Arriving at station.

Tracks.

bigger buildings - out of scale

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:47:00 +0000

establishing a new context.

block the context.
public gestures and complicated fencing.

a private garden.

another interface

a playground

the view towards the carrot tower of a cemetery

and a public toilet.

the negative effect of scale shift

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:35:00 +0000

This is not the usual small scale big scale Tokyo conflict. This makes me more sad.

along a ring road

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

A church.

Infrastructure upgrade in progress.

The scale of objects along the road.

A mess.

Structural strangeness.

Green add on.

Massive scale.

Transition from above to below.

Small scale oddness.

Triangular motif.

Stair motif.

Monumental scale of ventilation tower.

A river crossing.

Larger scale in distance.

Crossing a railway line, looking into a the dense shotengai structure surrounding a station.

a garden

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:35:00 +0000

hamarikyu. a garden in the harbor.

a crossing

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:21:00 +0000

Inokashira-dori

Yamate-dori

Inokashira-dori

tourism

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 18:27:00 +0000

the fishmarket in tsukiji.

from 1st

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:02:00 +0000

a favorite

for complex and simple reasons

a river

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:56:00 +0000

a train for the mountains

and a canal

a showroom disguised a house

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:46:00 +0000

with an office on the first floor.

a small axis

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:20:00 +0000

As usual in Tokyo everything exists at many different scales. In the rain in the backstreets of a suburb slightly famous for various reasons a chapel or church like building make it own small but grand axis.

metal screen

noreply@blogger.com (LY) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 17:44:00 +0000

at night, with light.