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A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE MODERN JAPANESE CITY PLANNING METHODOLOGIES:

A Comparison of the urbanization processes in Japan and Taiwan

Hsu Hsin-Yao1

1The University of Tokyo, Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo, JAPAN 113-8656

[email protected]

ABSTRACT: This paper analyzes the urbanization

processes of two cities, Tokyo and Tainan, in the early 20th

century, and tries to find their respective impacts on the

original urban spatial structures. Instead of descriptive

observations of the city, the Axial Analysis of the Space

Syntax theory is adopted in this paper to examine the

spatial structures of the urban spaces as a whole beforeand after the modern urban planning. It is usually argued

that the cities in Taiwan were destroyed during the

Japanese colonial period due to the reckless urban

improvement plan implemented by the colonial

government which has resulted in disconnected urban

spaces. However, from the morphological comparison of

Tokyo and Tainan, a conclusion be can drawn that the

spatial structure of Tokyo changed permanently due to thereorganization of street patterns and lots while it of Tainan

remains almost intact underlying today’s modern urban

spaces accidently because of the government’s apathy

towards the original built environment. Therefore, in the

coming era of shrinking cities, there seems to be a chance

for planners to restore the traditional pedestrian-oriented

urban spaces in the future.

Keywords: land readjustment, urban improvement, space

syntax, urban planning

I. INTRODUCTION

The modern urbanization of Tokyo (Japan) and Tainan(Taiwan) was conducted by the same country, Japan, in twodifferent ways, and hence has resulted in two different kinds of “modern” urban spatial models. “Land readjustment” is the toolof urbanization by rearranging the lands and street patternswhich has been used in Japan from the early 20th century untiltoday, while “urban improvement” is a relatively primitive toolimposed onto the cities in Taiwan by effacing directly theexisting urban spaces.

It is argued that the original urban structures of cities inTaiwan were “destroyed” by this kind of reckless modernurban planning in the early 20th century. However, in thispaper, a perspective is proposed explaining that the reckless

“urban improvement” did not destroy completely the original

urban structures but preserved them accidently underneathtoday’s “modern” urban spaces instead. The “landreadjustment” applied in Japan which rearranged the lands andstreet patterns, on the contrary, has resulted in irreversiblechanges to the original spatial structures.

The fact that the nucleus and the life network of an urbanarea remains the same in local scales are not difficult to begeneralized from the empirical observations on local people’severyday life. The diachronic researches of maps, however,show opposite results since the original urban structure hasapparently broke into numerous disconnected urban spaces. Tosolve this inconsistency, a morphological analysis methodcalled Space Syntax is adopted in this paper, to re-examine thechanges of the spatial structures as a whole of these two cities,Tokyo and Tainan, in their early 20th century, before and afterthe modern urbanization.

II. METHODOLOGY

A. Space Syntax Theory and Axial Analysis

Space Syntax theory, which was originally conceived byBill Hillier, has been proposed as a new computationallanguage to describe spatial patterns of modern cities over thepast two decades. The application of space syntax covers manyurban studies such as modeling pedestrian movement, vehicleflows, crime mapping, and human wayfinding process incomplex built environments. (B. Hillier, 1996) All theinvestigations of Space Syntax applications tend to be based onthe assumption that spatial patterns, or structures, have a great

impact on human activities and behaviors in urbanenvironments. .

Space syntax can be practically defined as a set of analytical and computational tools for the analysis of urbansystems. In this paper, Axial Analysis is adopted to analyze thespatial structure of open spaces within an urban system. Basedon the computational representation of an urban area as aconnectivity graph (see Fig.1), two important measures can bederived. The connectivity gives the number of small-scalespaces to which a small-scale space is directly connected to.The integration describes the way in which each small-scalespace is overall linked to all other small-scale spaces. Theintegration can further be divided into global integration and

local integration. Global integration is a global measuredescribing the relation of each space to the system as a whole,while connectivity and local integration are local measuresdescribing the relationship of each space to its neighbors.

An important application of space syntax concerns theanalysis of pedestrian movement within an urban system. Aconsiderable number of studies on this have been carried outover the past two decades. The basic conclusion is that “localintegration” can be used to study people’s movements withinan urban system. (B. Jiang, 2000) It is the street pattern thatgenerates movement, which in turn attracts the shops. Thus,

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shops are not the main generator of movement. This fact alsomeans that it is possible to predict land value and land usethrough street pattern analysis. (J. Desyllas, 1997)

The Space Syntax Analysis examines an urban area as awhole, and picks out the nucleus in an urban area according tothe integration value. Since the movement flow correlatesclosely with the street pattern, when the street pattern changes,the movement flow and thus the nucleus of an urban area willconsequently change as well. Therefore, through the analysesof the street patterns before and after the urbanization, we canobtain a better understanding of the impact of the modernurban planning on an urban system as a whole.

Figure 1. The procedure of Axial Analysis.

B. The Spatial Analysis of Tokyo and Tainan

The basic urban structures constituting both cities todaywere determined mainly during the 1920s, with theimplementation of land readjustment in Tokyo and urbanimprovement in Tainan respectively. Therefore, maps showingthe changes before and after the modern urban planning inthese two cities are chosen for further spatial analyses.

The following part is a brief introduction and comparisonof modern Japanese urban planning in Japan and Taiwan whichalso shows the appropriate maps for spatial analysis.

III. MODERN JAPANESE URBAN PLANNING

A. Land Readjustment in Japan

Land readjustment is a technique for urban developmentand redevelopment of which the general idea is the exchange of the lots in the project area. (See Fig. 2) In Japan, Landreadjustment can be dated back to the urbanization periodfollowing the Meiji Restoration (1868), though it was not

formally legalized until the City Planning Act (都市計画法,

1919) specified that it be used to develop public facilities andto improve development potential.

After the Kanto Earthquake (1923), land readjustmentguided the reconstruction of Tokyo. During the “CapitalReconstruction Project” in Tokyo (1924-1930), about 90% of the burned area (=3119 ha.) was implemented with landreadjustment. The lands and street patterns reorganized duringthis period resulted in constituting the basic urban structure of today’s modern Tokyo. However, it also resulted in changingthe original urban structure permanently.

Figure 2. Typical model of land readjustment. (Source: Ryotaro Iwami, 1978:

57)

It is easy to recognize from Fig.4 that the originalmorphology of roads and lots were modified completely to fitto a more “economical” layout and then transformed into“modern” standard. In some cases, not only the lots but also theexisting buildings were rearranged to different places and evento different directions if necessary. Maps such as Fig.4 providedetailed lot rearrangement information, and hence are suitablefor further spatial analysis to examine the impact of the modernurban planning on the urban structure.

Figure 3. Tokyo before and after land readjustment during the reconstruction

project from 1924-1930. (Source: Tokyo Shiyakusho, 1931)

Figure 4. An area before and after land readjustment. (Source: Tokyo

Shiyakusho, 1931).

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B. Urban Improvement in Taiwan

Almost at the same time, the Japanese government startedto reconstruct the cities in the colony, Taiwan, with a

completely different technique, the “urban improvement”

(市区改正 ). Comparing to land readjustment, the urban

improvement is a rather primitive and obsolete techniquewhich focuses only on the minimum infrastructures and paysno concern to the existing built environment. As a result, theurban improvement plan was imposed directly onto the existingorganic urban morphology, cutting only the lands occupied byinfrastructures, leaving other parts remain the same.

Urban improvement was used as an urbanization techniqueto “fix” almost all the cities in the colony Taiwan during thecolonial period. Among these cities, Tainan city is consideredas the most difficult one to be “fixed” due to its organic urbanmorphology developed in the Chin Dynasty almost 400 yearsago from then. The first official urban improvement plan wasannounced in 1911 by the Japanese government, and wasrevised afterward in 1929. The urban improvement plan in1929 (see Fig. 5) is considered to constitute the basic urbanstructure of today’s Tainan City.

Figure 5. Tainan Urban Improvement Plan 1929. (Source: Huang Wu-Da,

2006)

From the urban improvement plan in 1911 (see Fig. 6), it isnot difficult to recognize that the “modern” urban planningconducted by the Japanese government paid little concern tothe original urban spatial structure, and thus resulted in creatingmany fragmented lots along the urban planning roads.However, since the built environment inside street blocks

enclosed by urban planning roads was completely ignored, thespaces inside blocks did not get any intervention, and thus hada chance to “stay in the past” until even today.

Figure 6. Part of Tainan Urban Improvement Plan 1911. (Source: Huang

Wu-Da, 2006)

IV. ANALYSIS RESULTS

The following analyses are conducted with the softwareDepthMap developed by the UCL Space Syntax research group.In Axial Maps, the red color stands for highest integrationvalue, meaning that the corresponding spaces are moreintegrated to other spaces and have a high potential of commercial activities in the urban area, while blue color standsfor lowest integration value, meaning that correspondingspaces are the least accessible parts in the same urban area.

A. The Axial Analysis of Tokyo City before and after Land

Readjustment In order to investigate the impact of the land readjustment

on an urban area, Area 37, 38, 39, 40 (Asakua-Ku & Shitaya-Ku) in the reconstruction project plan are chosen for furtheranalysis, for they had a drastic change after the implementationof land readjustment. This area was mixed with grid andmeandering street patterns while after the implementation, thestreet pattern was reorganized to a rather homogeneous onewith distinct main arteries penetrating through it.

The Axial Map (R=3) of this area before land readjustmentshows some local centers scattered along the main east-westartery. Other spaces within this area have a relatively lowintegration value comparing to local centers which means that

they are of low accessibility and are not likely to give rise tocommercial activities. These spaces of less integration tend tocling to a local center and together form an urban cluster. Onthe other hand, we can notice from the Axial Map (R=3) afterland readjustment that in general every street in this mapbecame highly integrated. The contrast of the integration valuebetween spaces is rather indistinct because the general idea of “modern” urban planning is to create homogeneous andefficient urban spaces.

The most important discovery of this investigation lies inthe relocation of local centers. The reorganization of street

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patterns created new local centers and erased old local centerssimultaneously. By comparing with the present map, we canfind that new local centers meet perfectly to the main shoppingdistricts today while old local canters disappeared completelywithout leaving any traces. As a result, after land readjustment,not only the street patterns /spatial structures but also thecenters as well as the everyday life network of an urban areahave changed.

Figure 7. The Axial Map of local Integration (R=3) of Tokyo

B. The Axial Analysis of Tainan City before and after Urban

Improvement

In this part, the aim is to examine the impact of the urbanimprovement on the original spatial structure of an urban area.

The north part of Tainan City is chosen for further analysis forthis area has an organic morphological pattern and was notintervened with modern urban planning at least until 1925.

From the Axial Map (R=3), before the urban improvement,a local center in the form of a crossroad located at the west partcan be picked out according to the integration value. After theurban improvement, as the Axial Map (R=3) shows, it seemsthat the space structure has changed completely. The newurban planning roads share all the high-integrated spaces andthe original meandering street network seems to have lost itspredominance.

However, if we take a closer look at the integration valuesof each spaces of the original street network, we can find that

apart from the new urban planning grid, spaces of highintegration value before the urban improvement still remainmost integrated among other spaces. It can also be observedthat some spaces become more integrated than before,especially those intersecting new roads. Nevertheless, thedistribution of spaces from high integration to low integrationas a whole did not change much. In other words, the spatialstructure of an urban area “as a whole” does not break intodiscontinuous spaces as it looks on the map, but on the contrary,it still remains intact to some extent underlying today’s modernurban environment. Furthermore, with cautious manipulation

based on detailed inspections of integration value, it should bepossible to restore the original urban system.

Two systems of spatial structures literally coexist untiltoday. And that is the reason why, even the old urban spatialstructure was “cut” 80 years ago, the life network of localpeople still conforms to the traditional urban spaces today.

Figure 8. The Axial Map of local Integration (R=3) of Tainan

V. DISCUSSION

Traditional naturally-happened urban morphologies in most

cases became hard to use due to its fragmented morphologicalpatterns after the urban improvement. However, lands do not just “freeze” after the implementation. In fact, lots within thesame block do reorganize spontaneously to redirect themselvesto face new urban planning roads as time goes by. (A. Aoi,2006) As for those which did not readjust autonomously,according to the“Building Law” and“Odd Lots Act” (畸

零地使用規則), lots which are of small area or deformation

cannot be constructed unless they merge with other lots. Thiskind of rules passively stipulate only “what is prohibited”, butprovide no positive instructions, making those fragmented lotsrather useless.

Both types of land pattern (see Fig. 9) readjust themselves

inside their block or, in most cases, only on the “interface”connecting to new roads. As a result, both types changenothing about the street pattern, and thus make little impact onthe urban system as a whole since the urban system consists of open spaces, i.e. the street pattern. The overall system of anurban area, as we have observed in the previous section, doesnot reorganize due to a single new road, and so is the situationif we merely modify the interface.

In recent years, underground railway projects with theslogan “urban sewing” have become a boom in Taiwan.However, the key word “sewing” has not ever been defined

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clearly. What to sew up? Sewing means to reconnect brokenthings, reconstructing continuity. In most of the projects,planners tend to reconnect what we can call “visiblecontinuity”, such as facades, the rearrangement of lots or thetypology of architectures for the easy acquisition of beautification effects of the city by ignoring the overall urbansystem. Fortunately, thanks to the indifference of designers tothe urban system, the street patterns still remain intact by

accident again, just as what the Japanese planners have done 80years ago. For the future design strategies, it is suggested thatwe regard an urban area as a system, and reconstruct the“invisible continuity” lying underneath the built environmentby reconnecting the open spaces with urban spaces rather thaninterfaces.

Figure 9. Two types of adaptations after Urban Improvement

VI. CONCLUSION

Land readjustment and urban improvement are bothtechniques used in the practice of urbanization conducted byJapan. However, their general ideas are different and so are theresults.

Land readjustment is usually considered as the better wayfor its rational intervention in not only the street layout but alsothe rearrangement of lots inside blocks while urbanimprovement is considered as a primitive and rude way to“destroy” the city for its lack of concerns with the originalurban spaces. However, in this paper, we try to use the SpaceSyntax analysis to show that the land readjustment reorganizesthe street layout, and thus results in irreversible change of thewhole space structure which also relates to the history, lifestyle and identity of an urban area. On the contrary, althoughurban improvement causes many practical problems such asfragmented lots by cutting out directly the existing urbanspaces, its apathy towards the inner spaces within blocks byaccident preserved the system of an urban area as a whole.

This discovery suggests a new attitude towards dealing withthis kind of seemingly broken urban spaces. Since the “cutting”of an urban area does not really change the spatial structure as awhole, similarly, modifications only on the interfaces of thecutting do not really help reconstruct the continuity of an urbanarea as well. It should be an issue of the overall system of anurban area. Furthermore, in the coming era of shrinking cities,when automobiles are expelled from the old center of the city,

it could be a chance for planners to restore the traditionalpedestrian-oriented urban spaces by reconnecting thoseseemingly broken urban spaces.

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