Seeking to explore power as crucial factor in the design of the built environment, we will look at energy systems and related objects, from sites of generation to spaces of consumption, from distribution networks to control rooms.
Tutors: Filip Geerts and Sanne van den Breemer
Director of Studies: Salomon Frausto
Contributors: Santiago Ardila, Juan Benavides, Daniella Camarena, Stef Dingen, Marco Fusco, Jack Garay Arauzo, Theodora Gelali, Shaiwanti Gupta, Hao Hsu, Marianthi Papangelopoulou, Felipe Quintero, Gent Shehu, Siyuan Wang
@theberlage.nl
“Recovering the sky”
Public opinion, Infrastructure, Consumption, Metropolitan, Olympics, Nihonbashi, Transportation, Economy, Infrastructure, Mosaic
In the event of the 1964 Olympics, Tokyo invested large amounts of money in the construction of new projects, stadiums, arenas, and highways. The Olympics served as a stage for Japan’s re-entry into the world community, by showing their potential as a country recovered from the war. A hundred kilometers of new superhighways were built. One of these is the Edobashi segment, a network of roads that fly over the historical Nihonbashi bridge.
Within the Nihonbashi bridge one can find the mile marker, from which all roads in Japan are measured. The Nihonbashi bridge is the center of Japan. However, the removal of the highway has been in the minds of the local community for several years, “to recover the sky to the Nihonbashi river” is the name of the campaign in discussion since 2005. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, have announced that after the 2020 Olympics, they will begin to oversee a project to move that fragment of the Shutoko expressway underground 1. Although this task is not an easy one, moving that segment underground will require millions of investment and years of work. In addition, the force needed to move that segment of the Shutoko, not only financially but logistically, is enormous considering that the underground of Tokyo is already crowded. In a way, Nihonbashi bridge, with all of its layers of history, has found a way back again to the center of Japan.
1. Nikkei, Tokyo, Nihonbashi and Metropolitan Government talk under Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway underground, July 21, 2017, https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLASDC21H2J_R20C17A7EA2000/?dg=1 (accessed March 17, 2020)
See Photos: Edobashi JCT, Hakozaki JCT, in Tokyo
Listen audio: 6
Public opinion, Infrastructure, Consumption, Metropolitan, Olympics, Nihonbashi, Transportation, Economy, Infrastructure, Mosaic
In the event of the 1964 Olympics, Tokyo invested large amounts of money in the construction of new projects, stadiums, arenas, and highways. The Olympics served as a stage for Japan’s re-entry into the world community, by showing their potential as a country recovered from the war. A hundred kilometers of new superhighways were built. One of these is the Edobashi segment, a network of roads that fly over the historical Nihonbashi bridge.
Within the Nihonbashi bridge one can find the mile marker, from which all roads in Japan are measured. The Nihonbashi bridge is the center of Japan. However, the removal of the highway has been in the minds of the local community for several years, “to recover the sky to the Nihonbashi river” is the name of the campaign in discussion since 2005. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, have announced that after the 2020 Olympics, they will begin to oversee a project to move that fragment of the Shutoko expressway underground 1. Although this task is not an easy one, moving that segment underground will require millions of investment and years of work. In addition, the force needed to move that segment of the Shutoko, not only financially but logistically, is enormous considering that the underground of Tokyo is already crowded. In a way, Nihonbashi bridge, with all of its layers of history, has found a way back again to the center of Japan.
1. Nikkei, Tokyo, Nihonbashi and Metropolitan Government talk under Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway underground, July 21, 2017, https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLASDC21H2J_R20C17A7EA2000/?dg=1 (accessed March 17, 2020)
See Photos: Edobashi JCT, Hakozaki JCT, in Tokyo
Listen audio: 6