Darko Radović

Shitamachi as an Assembled Character in Nezu, Tokyo

Abstract This paper focuses on a specific urban situation in the precinct of Nezu, Tokyo, and uses assemblage theory to create an approach for its analysis. In spite of the change in the built landscape, Nezu has preserved its historical character. This suggests a different kind of preservation, one which is not based on the conservation of buildings. This study employs assemblage theory in order to clarify aspects that contribute to the preservation of this character. Assemblage theory is used as a toolbox to understand places through relationships between buildings rather than the buildings themselves. This paper develops a method for analysis of the physical structure, and focuses on the domestic, closeness, and neighbourhood feelings as main characteristics of the shitamachi Edo atmosphere of Nezu. This method is based on the application of assemblage theory through the visual analysis of streets and public-private interface patterns. The results show that the structure of the public-private interface in Nezu is one part of the assemblage which creates intensities and contributes to the sense of domestic, closeness and neighbourhood as the main elements that preserve the shitamachi character.

On Innovative Practices Which Contribute to Preservation of the Place Identity： The Example of Yanesen, Tokyo

The processes of globalization, the consequences of which are evident in all corners and at all levels of the contemporary world are linked to an increasing homogenization. Disciplines of architecture and urban design contribute to that process, which is affecting the very definitions of place and identity. A desire to maintain and (re)create local identity within the context of that increasingly global world is connected to reviving of the past or to various interpretations of history, and preservation of the built environment of the place. This paper identifies peculiar processes of creation and maintenance of identity of place in the precincts of Tokyo Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi, known as Yanesen. The authors argue that in Yanesen innovation appears as the byproduct of complex and creative responses to the threats of globalization, within a perpetual interplay of persistence and change. The paper opens a number of questions of where and how innovation in built environment can contribute to persistence of place identity.