Research Essay; Kenzo Tange's "Plan for Tokyo 1960"

Tokyo city challenges common ideas of cultural and architectural identity in that there are almost no buildings more than a century old, unlike the majority of other capital cities. Jinnai Hidenobu (1995) discusses in his book "Tokyo, a Spatial Anthropology", how Japan managed to preserve its traditional urban form, and yet modernise its architectural discourse by replacing only the contents of each land division and not the city layout itself. But after the events of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Pacific War, and ultimately World War Two, Tokyo had lost significant areas of built environment as well as, more crucially, its urban structure. Many designs were proposed to reform the urban crisis facing Tokyo in the years following World War Two, but it was Kenzo Tanges' "Plan for Tokyo 1960" which gained the most support from both the Japanese government as well as international design communities. Despite the schemes' popularity his designs were never realised and it can be argued that this is a result of a series of ignorant design decisions he undertook within the masterplan which contradicted even his own personal research and external influences. One influence which Tange drew from particularly throughout his career was Le Corbusier, whose utopian urban proposals also remained largely unbuilt. This essay will argue that the influences of Le Corbusier on Kenzo Tange as well as the intended social order and physical construction of "Plan for Tokyo 1960" resulted in the decisions which led to his designs being rejected. 

Tange's architectural career follows a clear and logical progression in which his "Plan for Tokyo 1960" represents a pivotal moment in the culmination of his ideals. An understanding of Tange's research and previous works highlights the main issues which resulted in "Plan for Tokyo 1960" remaining unbuilt. Tange began studying architecture at the Imperial University in Tokyo in 1935 (Lin 2010), and in 1938 he sought employment from Kunio Maekawa, whom had worked and studied under Le Corbusier in Paris in previous years. He spent his time there increasing his knowledge of Corbusier's ideas and of International Style principles (Ross 1978), exploring this influence in his first publication in 1939; an article entitled "Ode to Michelangelo: As an introduction to the study of Le Corbusier". This was to be the first piece of clear evidence that illustrated Le Corbusier's clear influence over Tange, an influence which "persisted throughout his entire career" claims Lin (2010) in his book "Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement". Other than Maekawa, Tange also benefited from a relationship he formed at the Imperial University with Sakakura, another of Le Corbusier's former disciples, at times even working together on projects such as Manchuria (Lin 2010). This association is most likely responsible for exposing Tange to ideas of urban planning and providing him with knowledge of modern city design. Lin elaborates on these connections describing how "Sakakura's Nanko project followed Le Corbusier's idea of planning, and envisioned a modern city resembling a fragment of Le Corbusier's Ville Radieuse, organising large-scale buildings and open greenery in a way that drastically contrasted with the dated urban framework of Shinkyo's historic center" (Lin 2010, 48). As a consequence of the Pacific War, a dramatic decline in the availability of work drove Tange to return to the Imperial University as a postgraduate student. Tange himself states that "this was the time when I began considering the importance of urban design, not in the sense of mere city planning involving land-use and street-network composition, but three-dimensional urban design" (Tange 1985, 7). During Tange's extensive studies he developed the term "communication space" to describe large open public spaces, an apparent void in Japanese architectural discourse, and employed it as an urban design principle (Ross 1978, 20). These discoveries echoed concepts Le Corbusier had previously explored in "Ville Radieuse". "Ville Radieuse", if it had been built, would have consisted of prefabricated and identical high-density skyscrapers, spread across a vast green area and arranged in a Cartesian grid, allowing the city to function as a “living machine.”. His proposal was harshly criticised for its strict social division and for ignoring the inhabitants need for public spaces. Le Corbusier's monolithic approach to scale and his adoption of tabula rasa in opposition to careful cultural analysis instigated the rejection of his proposals. The influence of Le Corbusier in Tange's "Plan for Tokyo 1960" is particularly evident in its celebration of technological progress, social order and monumental approach to construction. I think that there is also evidence that Tange attempted to move beyond Le Corbusier's design and planning principles, however he failed to acknowledge the mistakes of Le Corbusier and this led to his design 'ignorance' in Tokyo. 

Tange viewed Tokyo city in it's post-war state as a kind of 'tabula rasa' and his subsequent approach to reforming its urban structure fuelled sensitive issues surrounding the future of Japan's cultural, political and architectural identity. Arguably, the cause of Tokyo's urban 'crisis' was the inherent loss of cultural identity from the urban fabric, the flexible structure which once facilitated the exploration of foreign design and allowed for the preservation of cultural identity (Hidenobu 1995). Yet Tange chose, in his proposal, to ignore the tracings of the past and through a creative reinterpretation project a new city structure out across the bay. Lozanovska (2012), in his critic of what would be Tange's later work in Skopje, also concedes that "the production of a new regional plan and new city-centre master plan can have the effect of erasing both the pre-earthquake town and the memory of it" (Lozanovska 2012, 148). I believe that one of the reasons for its omission may have been an easy attempt to introduce the "communication spaces" Tange devised in his studies. An alternative reading of mine suggests that Tange saw the previous traditional city structure as incapable of absorbing the imminent surge of technology, such as cars, in the approaching post-industrial age. These theories are supported by many texts which describe the 'traditional' urban layout of Tokyo as being a somewhat disorderly grid along very narrow streets (Lin 2010; Ross 1978). It is also further evidenced in Tange's design itself which proposes an elevated multi-lane highway atop of 50 metre high stilts, which support a hierarchal system serving only vehicles. Le Corbusier applied his "pilotis" system in city contexts as a way of separating the pedestrian from the vehicle. Tange appropriated this system in his designs but integrated it with his own concepts of "core systems". This method of grouping along a strict hierarchy implied a social order which challenged the democratic system which was seeking establishment in Japan at the time (Lin 2010). To argue whether or not suppressing the memory and social order of Japan or reviving it was, at the time, the appropriate course of action is of little importance here as the sensitivity generated by the issue itself limited the extent to which Tange's proposal could have been implemented. 

From a purely pragmatic perspective, "Plan for Tokyo 1960" neglected to recognise the excessive financial and material resources required to construct even the initial framework of the design and this ultimately was what caused it to remain unbuilt. The construction of the artificial islands and the building of the central spine, as well as all of the infrastructure requirements, were all necessary before  any value or use of the design could be achieved. However each of these projects required gargantuan amounts of resources and financial support which could have only potentially ever been supplied by a totalitarian regime (Lin 2010; Florian 2011). Lin (2010) goes on, arguing that "in the prewar years, the chance may have existed in authoritarian Japan or its colonies but, after the war, neither Japan's central government nor any corporation and agency possessed such power" (Lin 2010, 166). Florian (2011) argues that this reliance is a result of the work Tange engaged in under the Japanese government during the war, however I believe that Tange's approach to these 'utopian' ideals grew from his studies of Le Corbusier who attempted the achieve similar things in his own proposals. Like Le Corbusier, Tange placed great faith in the promises of modern technology's continuing progress. As stated previously, they both believed that technology would play an important role in all future developments, physical and cultural. But his concern for the potential destructiveness of unregulated technological advance moved him beyond this faith, most likely on account of his witnessing the devastation of atomic bombing during WWII. In addition to this, Lin (2010) also claims that Tange felt the confrontation between technology and humanity was further exacerbating the urban crisis of Tokyo. His proposal for Tokyo Bay was seeking to create a new order and urban hierarchy in an effort to control technological growth. Florian (2011), in his critique, highlights the irony behind combating technology's' 'destructive potential' with a reliance on even more technology. As well as failing to understand the weakened capacity of the Japanese government at the time, I don't believe Tange anticipated the rate at which resources and technology would need to progress in order to meet the needs of his design. On an abstract level, this point and the monumentality of Tange's proposal echoes Hitler and Speer's design for Germania. The obvious contradictions between the construction needs of these projects and the resources available in their respective contexts limited the manner in which their designs could be realised. 

Although Tange's masterplan was never constructed, fragments of his design - or at least his ideals - have been realised in smaller projects, such as Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo (Florian 2011). And while the full impact of Tokyo Bay's operation can not be analysed, a critique of Kurakawa's Tower provides insight into the post-construction problems it may have faced. The legitimacy of Kurokawa's Tower has been the topic of great debate in recent years between the current owners, who wish to demolish it on account of its excessive maintenance costs, and global architectural communities, who feel it should remain as an important landmark in the history of Japanese architectural discourse (Florian 2011). This argument gives rise to questions regarding how Tange's design would have performed if it had actually been built. The design of "Plan for Tokyo 1960" approached the challenge of urban reform through a series of interventions at different scales, following his belief that different aspects of the urban environment required changes at different frequencies. The "core system", Tange's own invention, was a long term vision of shafts which acted as service towers or 'social arteries', providing vertical circulation and structural support for the horizontal elements of the system (Ross 1978, 23). These "core systems" can be viewed as a progression from Le Corbusier's system of "pilotis". As well as the "core system", the elevated highways were also designed to exist on the larger time scale, but in contrast all of the units serving the human scale were intended to be changed on a frequent basis. The design of Kurakawa Tower intended the same explicit flexibility; it functions as a single service tower with many capsule spaces attached which could be removed for maintenance or replacement at any time. Despite it's good intentions, it can be seen that the cost of this 'flexibility' is excessive and unrealistic despite advances in modern technology. I attribute this not specifically to flaws in the design but to Tange's inaccurate prediction of the rate of technological progress and also for not identifying who is responsible for facilitating this maintenance. Florian (2011) contributes to the argument saying that any 19th century warehouse who's had its façade, roof, or interior walls adapted to new uses should be deemed more flexible than Kurokawas' Tower. "One is baffled that these visions of an allegedly free and spontaneous life in a man-made techno-world in most cases completely ignore the gargantuan resources needed to guarantee its maintenance and flawless functioning" (Florian 2011, 584). The "Plan for Tokyo 1960" would have most likely faced these issues as well, being designed with the same principles, along with many unforeseen concerns which would be attributed to it's enormous scale. If its initial construction could have been facilitated in the first instance, any chance of efficient functioning would have been consumed by the cost, both financially and physically, of operation and maintenance. 

It can be seen that Kenzo Tange's "Plan for Tokyo 1960" was born from a series of carefully studied theories and precedents. However, the manner in which they were implemented within the design was arguably inappropriate within the designated socio-political context of its site. Tange's rejection of Japan's cultural and historical past through his design, meant that it's construction would assign a specific opinion to the governmental body; A situation which would have potentially caused public unrest. Furthermore, complications regarding the physical construction of the design created additional issues of finance and resource attainment which would have been extended into its maintenance and function in the future. Ultimately, "Plan for Tokyo 1960" was never realised in its proposed state on account of the design decisions made by Tange himself. 

References 

Image: http://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/856/flashcards/749856/png/tokyo_bay_plan1322588087010.png
Jinnai, Hidenobu. 1995. Tokyo, A Spatial Anthropology. University of California Press. 

Lin, Zhongjie. 2010. Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement : Urban Utopias of Modern Japan. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. 

Lozanovska, Mirjana. 2012. "Kenzo Tange's Forgotten Master Plan for the Reconstruction of Skopje" Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (22) 2: 140-163. DOI: 10.1080/10331867.2012.733159 

Pernice, Raffaele. 2006. "The Transformation of Tokyo During the 1950s and Early 1960s, Projects Between City Planning and Urban Utopia." Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering 5 (2): 253-260. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jaabe/5/2/5_2_253/_pdf. 

Ross, Michael Franklin. 1978. Beyond Metabolism: A New Japanese Architecture. New York: Architectural Record Books. 

Tange, Kenzo. 1985. "Recollections: Architect Kenzo Tange" Japan Architect: 7-12.  

Urban, Florian. 2011. "Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement" The Journal of Architecture 16 (4): 584-587. DOI: 10.1080/13602365.2011.598725