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Agents of Transformation and the "Death" of Urbanism Preeminence of the Decorated Shed Staging Uncertainty |
[3L6] CITÉ POST-INDUSTRIELLE.
Whenever a new technology is developed, the common view is that it will replace the old one completely. "The book will kill the building," or the computer will kill the book. In reality, old technologies often continue to exist alongside new ones, although some of their former functions are absorbed by the new ones. The introduction of television and the radio, for instance, did not curtail newspaper publication. Likewise, the development of the motion picture did not finish painting (although some would argue this point). In a similar way, then, the industrial city is not dead; it has simply been absorbed into the larger post-industrial city. The Port of Nagoya has the potential to become a
hybrid industrial/post-industrial city, with old and new functions closely inter-related.
As outmoded factories are removed or relocated, new offices and research centers will take
their place alongside industrial plants which still function well.
At present, the reclaimed land extensions off the Nagoya coast are strikingly evident, not only for their predictable geometrical outlines, but also for their particular scale and zoning patterns, which contrast sharply with the character of the mainland city. The factories and power plants which have traditionally occupied this territory have been strongly separated from the housing and commercial districts on shore, and as a result have maintained a separate existence from the public affairs of the city. With the coming transformation of this area, however, it will be crucial to form strong connections not only between artificial and natural land regions, but also between the opposite sides of the port. The nearly completed Nagoya Ring Road will provide the first such connection, and another road is planned further to the south. As opposed to the north-south international corridor, these new ‘cross-stitches’ will introduce much needed east-west local corridors.
In the spirit of ‘infratecture’, then, I have projected new systems of circuitry which will stitch together what is currently a fragmented and inaccessible area, allowing the majority of development to occur along arterial lines, with emphasis on interchanges. This scheme proposes a distributed system of ‘hot spots’ for the incubation of new, varied forms of urbanism, which will become future centers for public and private life.
 
Analytical maps of Nagoya Port (reclaimed land in red, blue) and its context
Computer model views of Nagoya Port infrastructural projection, looking south and north
Model views of Nagoya Port looking north and south 126Hall, Edward T., The Hidden Dimension (New York: Doubleday, 1966) p. 149-150 127Ibid., p. 149 Images: 1. Nagoya Port aerial, 2. Aerial showing Kinjo Pier expo hall next to container yards, 3. Aerial of Ise Bay showing cramped Nagoya Port, 4. Note the sharp contrast between the mainland and the reclaimed land use patterns, 5. Public interchange outside of Shinjuku Station, 6. Hot Spots
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Some of the existing container terminals and distribution yards
will be occupied by new entertainment complexes or cultural centers, but most will remain
and only become more sophisticated. Nagoya Port promises to be a thriving, multifaceted
new center where locals and tourists, and blue-collar and white-collar workers, will
commingle. Like Garnier’s Cité Industrielle, zoning separations will be maintained
where necessary, but whenever possible, varying functions should be overlaid, conflated,
and blended, to provide new urban milieus. Planning should not take place exclusively
along proprietary lines, but also between them. In this way, urban
‘functionalism’ can be replaced with urban ‘operationalism’,
emphasizing connections over boundaries, and activities over things.
Unlike Tokyo or Osaka, which developed their ports early,
Nagoya evolved inland – as a station on the Tokaido corridor – and developed its
port later. The narrow inlet which connects Nagoya’s port to Ise Bay is an
unfortunate geographical configuration; as opposed to the ideal port of Kobe, for
instance, which stretches out along a wide shoreline, the port of Nagoya is cramped,
possessing little room for development. City planners have taken advantage of the strong
axial line framed by the narrow mouth of the port, however, and the artificial extensions
which have been developed suggest an evolving linear city. With an international airport
planned to the south off the coast of Tokoname, the linear extension of the city will
present an effective urban armature to a large number of international visitors. Planners
should develop the potential of this new north-south corridor en route to the heart of the
existing city. Port administrative functions are already slated to migrate south along
this corridor to a new site on Kinjo Pier, which is strategically located at the center of
the port.
New
interchanges will be located where these separate systems meet. These intersections
possess the greatest potential for new urban development. Edward Hall writes about the
importance of the interchange to the Japanese psyche: "The Japanese name
intersections rather than the streets leading to them... The route itself from point A to
point B seems almost whimsical to the Westerner and is not stressed as it is with us. Not
being in the habit of using fixed routes, the Japanese zero in on their
destination..."126 As is evident in the patterns of urban life in Japan,
"the concept of the center that can be approached from any direction is a
well-developed theme in Japanese culture."127 Thus, these new crossings
hold important futures for the development of a new post-industrial city.
A Master's Thesis in Architecture at Rice University by Blaine Brownell. Copyright © 1998 by Blaine Brownell. All rights reserved. |
