FIXES

Non-Intentional Design: Investigating alterations of space/objects at the public/private boundary in suburban Tokyo, Japan. A resource by a-small-lab.com. Contact: Chris Berthelsen chris@a-small-lab.com

Conjunctive Gardening

This rambling garden along a strech of 4-lane residential road illustrates the blurred, conjunctive nature of Tokyo gardening (although this example is from Nagoya).

Pots, blocks, dirt and plants sit, stand on and burrow over and into each1 other in a rich semi-autonomous mess. Compare this to the modular, constrained and connected formal gardens and green spaces of the financial district.

1. from Shelton (1999)

Conjunctive Gardening
Conjunctive Gardening
Conjunctive Gardening
Conjunctive Gardening
Conjunctive Gardening

Materials: Pots
Location: Nagoya

Raised Garden

This raised empty plot supports a host of edibles, in a garden constructed from pots, old metal shelving, rags, netting and all kinds of junk.

Raised Garden
Raised Garden
Raised Garden
Raised Garden
Raised Garden
Raised Garden

Location: Nagoya, Japan

Passage Territory Garden

Quiet gardens nestle up against apartment complex walls and fences, far from the controls of the centre – in planters and planted directly in the earth.

These side spaces, edges – passage territories – are just the right mix of light, elbow room and ‘half-hiddenness’ to act as invitations to garden.

(see The Open City by Richard Sennett (PDF link) for a discussion of passage territories)

Sides
Sides
Sides

Materials: Pots
Location: Nagoya

No Parking in Potplants

A bit of greenification helps keep this inner-city commerce spot free of parked bicycles.

Nice contrast with residential areas, where pots trump cars – see [HERE] and [HERE]

No Parking in Potplants
No Parking in Potplants
No Parking in Potplants

Materials: Potplants
Location: Central Nagoya

Garden in Planks, Pots and Breeze Blocks

Garden built on parking area – constructed of planks and breeze blocks. Notice that the garden is actually an aggregation of pot plants, which look like a cohesive whole due to rotting autumn leaves. Superb.
P1130816
P1130817
P1130818
P1130819
Materials: Planks, Pots, Breeze Blocks
Location: Akishima, Tokyo

Potplant Boundary Setting

Pot plants outside a suburban residential office demarcate parking space, prevent cyclist curb-cutting (safety), set the limits of the official office zone of use, and beautify.

Potplant Boundary Setting
Potplant Boundary Setting
Potplant Boundary Setting

Materials: Pots
Location: Akishima, Tokyo

(Originally posted on Tokyo-DIY-Gardening)

Lush Green Wall Construction

In an expensive back street off Aoyama Dori in Shibuya resides this lush and intense pot plant collage. Piece by piece, plants in pots have been added to the structure, and secured with a variety of spur-of-the-moment wire and string fixes.

I love the sense of time and process present in these types of garden collages – unplanned and hectic but built up slowly over many years. Temporary in form and materials but not in presence. A type of green urban archeology.

Lush Green Wall Construction
Lush Green Wall Construction
Lush Green Wall Construction
Lush Green Wall Construction
Lush Green Wall Construction
Lush Green Wall Construction
Lush Green Wall Construction
Lush Green Wall Construction

Materials: Wire, String, Pots
Location: Shibuya, Tokyo

(Originally posted on Tokyo-DIY-Gardening)

Mega-Cities: Design Anthropology and Urban Landscapes
I'm delighted and honoured to have my FIXES work included in Jared Braiterman's Tokyo University graduate seminar on mega-cities.
You can download the syllabus [HERE]


Thanks to the URBAN DESIGN Lab 西村・北沢・窪田 都市デザイン研究室, Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo for making this a featured resource of their lab [LINK]

Vision Plus 2010
Thanks to the organizers of the conference for selecting this project as a featured resource, even though I was not able to attend.




Article: Small Places of Anarchy in the City: Three Investigations in Tokyo on This Big City

Article: The Non-Intentional Landscape of Tokyo - read at This Big City

Article: Framework for Neighbourhood Creative Climate - read at This Big City

Tokyo Green Space from Jared Braiterman is a great inspiration [LINK]

Urban Bricolage by @ehooge is an inspiring site on a related theme [LINK]

Treepolis by Christoph Rupprecht inspires me with investigations into informal green space, cities, and urban ecology with a focus on Australia and Japan [LINK]

Everyday Structures by @alanwiig is another fine site in the same vein [LINK]