Shifts in Urban Transformation: Tokyo’s Architecture and Urban Structure Analyzed Through the 2020 Olympic Games

Activity: Talks and presentationsTalk or oral contributionScience to Science

Description

Panel I: Tōkyō through the lens of the 2020 Olympics
Title: Shifts in urban transformation: Tokyo’s architecture and urban structure analyzed through the 2020 Olympic Games

Abstract: The severe impact of Olympic Games on the urban structure of host cities is evident in many cases. Newly developed areas, stadiums, residential buildings and infrastructure projects shape the city and residents’ lives even years after the games. While the memory of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics is still retained, the urban legacy dissolved over the years in the fabric of the city. At the same time the expectations of the 2020 Olympics’ impact on space and architecture in Tokyo are oscillating between dream and nightmare. The only thing that can be taken for granted is that Tokyo is changing. Therefore, I take the Olympic Games as starting point to call attention to the fluid urban fabric and fast-changing nature of a city that is based on a layered arrangement of history and culture. To unravel the structure of Tokyo, perspectives from urban studies and anthropology are combined and refined by voices from inhabitants and city planners. Finally, the question prevails: Whose city is Tokyo and whose games are changing the urban fabric at the dawn of the Olympics?
Period8 Nov 2019
Event titleVSJF Annual Conference 2019 "Metropolitan Japan in Historical and Contemporary Perspective": Annual Conference of the German Association for Social Science Research on Japan
Event typeConference
LocationBochum, Germany, North Rhine-WestphaliaShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational