Crossings at arm’s length

Crossings at arm’s length; people to people exchange of goods, services, and social interactions; necessary, dynamic and a vital daily occurrence.

Street vendor in Bangkok, Thailand / Photo by Shun Kanda
Food vendors en route from Siem Reap, Cambodia / Photo by Emily Lo Gibson
Motorbike taxis waiting for customers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti / Photo by Emily Lo Gibson

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How have you crossed paths in your neighborhood? What kinds of personal interactions might you have on a typical day? If you live in an area dominated by cars, what could you do to increase the number of face-to-face encounters in your life?

Share your thoughts using our contact page, or post on our Facebook page or on other social media using the hashtags #crossings #skyMEMO.

Learn more about the theme Crossings.

Considering public space

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What might the future Town Room look like? Nikken Sekkei (English / Japanese) recently published a booklet on public space in light of the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. They have graciously allowed us to reprint a description of their piece, in both Japanese and English.

View an excerpt of their publication with illustrations, such as the one above, envisioning new user activities and experiences for the future of public space.

日本語

2020年をきっかけにパブリックスペースについて考える

大松 敦|日建設計 プロジェクト開発部門 統括 PPO推進担当役員
坂本隆之・安田啓紀|日建設計 NAD室
辻本 顕|日建設計 プロジェクト開発部門

日建設計PPO(Pre -post Olympic)推進チームとNAD室(Nikken Activity Design lab)では、2020年東京オリンピック・パラリンピック以降の都市や社会をユーザー思考で検討し、情報発信する活動を行っています。2020年以降の社会を考えるにあたり、私たちはパブリックスペースに焦点を当てました。なぜいまパブリックスペースなのか? それは、パブリックスペースの認識を刷新するには2020年がまたとない機会であること、また、パブリックスペースは暮らしや人と社会との関わり方と深く結びついており、社会にイノベーションをもたらすカギになるのではないかと考えたからです。

これまでの活動では、ワークショップや社外有識者へのインタビューなど、社内外・専門分野を問わずあらゆる方と連携してきました。パブリックスペースとはどこのことなのか、それは誰のためのものなのか、そしてこれからどうあるべきかについて考えてきました。

どこがパブリックスペースなのかを考える

はじめに、パブリックスペースとはどこなのかを考えました。公園、道路などの公共施設はさることながら、オフィスのエントランスや駅、電車の中など、いろいろな人が自由に出入りできるあらゆる場所がパブリックスペース。そんな風にあらゆる場所を捉え直していくことがとても大切です。

パブリックスペースは誰のためのものかを考える

私たちは、パブリックスペースは「ユーザー」と「社会」と「経済」のためのものであるとしました。そして、その3者がそれぞれの立場を超えて協力し、イノベーションのきっかけが生まれる場所がパブリックスペースのあるべき姿だと考えています。

パブリックスペースの意義について考える

「オリンピックをきっかけにパブリックスペースを考えることの意義」をロンドン・オリンピック・パークの設計に携わった白井宏昌氏に、「パブリックスペースはどのようにしてイノベーションのカギになり得るのか」をイノベーション研究分野の第一線で活躍されている紺野登氏に伺いました。オリンピックがパブリックスペース再生の起爆剤になり得ることや、経済が共有・協業型へシフトするなかで、私有地をパブリック化しシェアすることが価値を生むことなど、パブリックスペースの意義を考える上で欠くことのできない着眼点と気づきにつながるストーリーを伺いました。

パブリックスペースを考えるための視点をもつ

パブリックスペースをより良くしていくための4つの視点を提起しました。さまざまな人が「集まれる」こと、社会の実験場としていろいろな使い方を「試せる」こと、人と社会の接点を広げる寛容性が感じられるような「関われる」場所になっていること、そして、人と社会、経済を媒介する「メディアになる」こと。これらをもとに、ユーザー思考を通して着想したアクティビティのアイデアを描きました。

いずれもあらためて考えるととても難しい問いであり、完璧な答えはありません。それでも、この取り組みが普段何気なく使っている「パブリックスペース」について再考するきっかけになればと思い、活動の内容をブックレットにまとめ、発行しました。今後は身近なパブリックスペースでこれまで考えてきたことを実践しつつ、より良い答えを模索していきたいと思います。

 

English

 

Considering Public Space with 2020 as a Turning Point

Authors:

Atsushi Omatsu | Head of Project Development Department, Principal in Charge of Pre-post Olympic Strategic Planning, Nikken Sekkei
Takayuki Sakamoto / Hiraki Yasuda | Nikken Activity Design lab, Nikken Sekkei
Akira Tsujimoto | Project Development Department, Nikken Sekkei

The Nikken PPO (Pre-post Olympics) Strategic Planning Team and NAD (Nikken Activity Design lab) have been studying what might happen to our city and society after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics from the users’ perspective.

In considering our city and society after 2020, we focused on public space. Why public space now? We believe that 2020 presents us with a great opportunity to reconsider our perceptions of public space. We also believe that this exercise would lead us to ideas for innovation that could change and improve the quality of life in the urban environment.

With the collaboration of experts in various fields inside and outside our firm, we have reconsidered the definition of public space in the Japanese urban environment, who it is for and what it should be like in the future.

What Is Public Space?

We first thought about where we can find public space. Parks, roads, and public facilities are obvious answers, but other spaces where people are free to come and go, such as building entrances, train stations, and the inside of public transportation vehicles are all public spaces. It is important to reinterpret various spaces around us from the perspective of public space to find ideas for innovation.

Public Space Is for Whom?

Public spaces are for users, society, and the collaborative economy. We believe that public spaces are places that enable these three elements to transcend their constraints and collaborate together in order to create the seeds for innovation.

What Is the Significance of Public Space?

We interviewed Hiromasa Shirai, who participated in the design of London’s Olympic Park, about the significance of considering public spaces with the Olympics in mind. We also spoke with Noboru Konno, leading expert in the field of innovation research, about how public space could provide the keys to innovation.

From these interviews, we were able to gain insightful accounts focusing on the impact and significance of the Olympic games and their legacy for the rejuvenation of public space, and the new value created by sharing private spaces for public use in the sharing/collaborative economy.

Establishing Perspectives for Thinking about Public Space

We then proposed the following four perspectives for improving public space. Public spaces should be spaces that various users are able to: 1.gather and spend time; 2.experiment with new ideas; 3.find tolerance for involvement; 4.share lifestyle as a social media for the city. Based on these perspectives we designed exemplary user activities and experiences for better public spaces.

We compiled our conclusions into a booklet in the hope that it might trigger new ideas and approaches. In the future, we look forward to putting these ideas into practice in some public spaces while we continue to look for innovative ideas.

 

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Excerpted text and image copyright 2016 Nikken Sekkei
Reprinted with permission
Originally published in the firm’s Nikken Journal 26, the 2016 Spring edition

Have another story that transforms the street into a community theater? Let us know through the contact form, or post on our Facebook page or on your platform of choice using the hashtag #townroom.

Read more about the Town Room here.

Apply for Japan Design Workshop / International Advanced Design Workshop 2016

Participants and community members from the 2014 Japan Design Workshop

We have two upcoming opportunities for those interested in exploring the meaning of place while working with local communities. The first:

2016 Japan Design Workshop /
International Advanced Design Workshop

Continuity / Transformation in Architecture & Community Form
21 July – 08 August 2016

Continue reading Apply for Japan Design Workshop / International Advanced Design Workshop 2016

A new year, a new eTOPOS

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あけましておめでとうございます! Happy new year!

Our site has now been updated and is live with our first skyMEMO of the year. If you have a eTOPOS calendar, you can access the skyMEMO by scanning the January QR code with your mobile device. It is also easily accessed online for all to read, whether you have the calendar or not.

Our new Facebook page has also been launched, so take a visit and click “like” to follow us for updates on new content and general news on the future of community.

We also want to hear from you. We are still considering and developing different ways to engage people in this endeavor — after all, a community is made up of the many, not the few — but our comments sections and Facebook are good places to start. We hope to have a photologue and featured stories published on our blog, among other ideas, so check back for new features and let us know if you have any suggestions.

You may also have noticed that our site is bilingual, in Japanese and English. While eTOPOS hopes to encompass the many qualities of communities in every part of the world, and how both unique and universal they are, many of our projects began as a collaboration among students, professionals, and institutions from the US and Japan. We will do our best to have content in both languages, but apologize if there is a delay in translation. It is our hope that language will not be a barrier to engaging in this conversation.

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The eTOPOS team

Calendars out the door

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After many months of planning, designing, and several days of hand packaging, five hundred calendars are now ready to be shipped from Cambridge, Massachusetts. It’s been quite the endeavor, and we’re excited to get these into the hands of our collaborators and the public — in Japan and around the world.

Continue reading Calendars out the door