Not claiming to be comprehensive, the focus is five structural community types: (1) tight alleyways, (2) zakkyo (tall, narrow, multi-purpose buildings with plentiful signage, (3) under-rail track phenomena, (4) ankyo (covered river streets), and (5) dense, low-rise neighborhoods. Emergent Tokyo notes that yokocho had their beginnings as temporary black markets that emerged in the post war period, which gradually transformed to bars for snacks and drinks from the late 1940s.

The data-driven analysis and clustering of architectural districts was very interesting, and the numerous diagrams were highly illuminating. I thought some of the layout was a tad shoddy in places, but overall this largely succeeds in what it sets out to do and I certainly learned a thing or two along the way too. A national zoning law, for example, sharply limits the ability of local governments to impede development. And so, in areas where neither the government nor the country’s real-estate and transportation mega-corporations could properly fund reconstruction efforts, whole neighborhoods instead rapidly rebuilt themselves. England has a wealth of surviving houses from past centuries, be they country mansions or rustic framed cottages, and the circumstances of the age are often reflected in the interiors.It look into six Tokyo urban design patterns, how they evolved, the experience they foster and how they are threatened by corporate development. Com­pared to Western metropolises like New York or Paris, however, few outsiders understand Tokyo’s inner workings. Tokyo used to be a water city of the likes of Venice, but most of the waterways were covered up (sometimes hastily) over the past century. For cities around the globe mired in crisis and seeking new models for the future, Tokyo's success at balancing between massive growth and local communal life poses a challenge: can we design other cities to emulate its best qualities?

But even those neighborhoods with solid property rights do not compare well with planned neighborhoods.Emergent Tokyo explores the city's conditions of development by examining 5 Tokyo patterns: yokocho alleyways; multi-tenant zakkyo buildings; undertrack infills; ankyo streets; dense low-rise neighbourhoods. Les informations sur les particularités de Tokyo ainsi que leurs origines sont intéressantes, mais la recherche s’arrête là. Overall, it was fascinating learning about Tokyo's urban development context - how Japan's system of strong property rights has made it challenging for real estate developers to do large scale redevelopment; it was only with the 2002 Law on Special Measures for Urban Renaissance, which designated specific areas of the city as special zones where existing urban regulations were suspended, that developers could negotiate case-by-case deals with local government officials to redevelop these parts of the city.

I feel like Emergent Tokyo dismantled some of my preconceptions of the city and replaced them with practical knowledge of how it came to be, how it operates and where it might be heading, as well as what the world can learn from it.

This is a sad fact, but on the positive side many of these covered waterways are now used as intimate walking spaces and as extensions of residences or businesses.