FIXES

Painted plate in inner-city residential street.

Materials: Paint
Location: Ueno, Tokyo

(Courtesy of Oyl in Tokyo (@oylmiller))

Training by the train tracks. Frugal use of street furniture.

(click image for animated .gif)

Location: Akishima, Tokyo

As noted in Deadspace Parking as BMX Training Course these income-generating asphalt plots become obstacle courses for budding and/or PRO suburban Tokyo BMXers from 12:30am onwards. Tonight as I return in the Dark Hourz I find the same man in a different coin parking space. I wonder whether he moves around to avoid detection or whether these spaces offer a valuable diversity of terrain that I have not before detected….. I need to look at those wheel clamps, judder bars and smooth asphalts more carefully.

We often decry Tokyo parking lot deadspace as an unimaginative and underused default money-making use for vacant lots but this stance exposes our own prejudices against concrete and blinds us to the diverse possibilities that the rugged terrain may offer.

Here, a half-empty suburban Tokyo pay-parking lot is the scene of a solo BMX training session in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

It is easier to record the remnants and artifacts of human(e) use of the city than it is to record use-in-action, but this example encourages me to spend more dark hours wandering the streets.

I wonder how these deadspaces by design are used when prying eyes are asleep: Deadspace by Design ONE & TWO on Tokyo Green Space.

The site in daylight:

Thick tar soup in generic paint can. Evidence of smoko time at the local taxi stand.

Materials: Can
Location: Akishima, Tokyo

Use the carry rack of your bicycle for a coaster, the lid of your drink as an ashtray – a simple private bar in front of the station.

Materials: Bicycle, Lid, Public Bench
Location: Akshima, Tokyo

Simple smoko spot constructed from can attached to roadside barrier with wire.

Materials: Can, Wire
Location: Shibuya, Tokyo

Banned from smoking in the newly built residence (the last one burnt down) the man of the house has created a smoking area in his outdoor sink with an opened empty beer can tied to the stand with plastic twine.

Materials: Beer Can, Plastic Twine
Location: Akishima, Tokyo

Plastic bamboo poles and netting are used to add height to a playground/creche fence to help prevent loose soccer shots from straying onto the road.




Materials: Netting, Plastic Pole
Location: Tachikawa, Tokyo

Fishing spot fashioned by cutting through chainlink fence (entry) and repeated trips (pathway).

Materials: Wire Cutters
Location: Fussa, Tokyo

When your job perks don’t extend to a lunch room and etiquette prohibits eating on the street… This cleaner makes use of his storage closet as a smoko/lunch room. Not particularly pleasant, but needs must…

Materials: Storage Closet
Location: Shibuya, Tokyo