Tokyo Void: Possibilities in Absence

by Marieluise Jonas, Heike Rahmann

Tokyo’s urban landscape is full of contradictions: as a densely packed megalopolis it affords thousands of vacant spaces. While creative design practices and informal appropriations activate the urban voids in European and Northern American cities, an understanding of integrating this spatial capital in to the public realm remains largely overlooked in Tokyo. Tokyo Void describes Tokyo’s void spaces through their distinct morphology and explores possibilities for rethinking these spaces in creative practice such as space agencies and design interventions. Tokyo Void questions the notion of a finished ideal in the urban landscape and aims to establish an understanding of a continuous and dynamic landscape that could renew the urban discourse with an appreciation of the imperfect and flexible.

192 pages, Softcover

First published September 1, 2014