Urban development that connects history

The bubble economy and its collapse proved that development that ignores life, culture, and history cannot last. We must learn from this experience in future urban development. Looking back, since the Meiji era, Japanese cities have been rapidly renovating buildings through a scrap-and-build system, changing the streetscape. Even in Marunouchi, where I am involved in redevelopment, the majority of buildings have been replaced two or three times in the past century and the average lifespan of a building is only about 30 to 40 years. I have even heard stories of people who, upon visiting Tokyo for the first time in years, got lost in the changes. Compared to European cities such as London and Paris, where architecture with hundreds of years of history is a given, Tokyo is like a world of temporary architecture.

It is time for us to plan our cities with an eye to the next few hundred years. This is especially true when we consider the global environment. Of course, we should not turn our cities into museums with the rigid idea that everything should be preserved, as some preservationists do. Cities shine by reflecting the society and activities of the people at any given time. What a city needs is harmony between the old and the new. In order to create an attractive city that can rival London or Paris, it would be effective to preserve beloved architecture as landmarks, inheriting the city's history and adding depth to it.

And in order to accumulate history, the town itself needs to be open to many people. Looking at the history of Marunouchi, in the Edo period it was a feudal lord's residence, in the first half of the Meiji period it was an army facility, and from the second half of the Meiji period it was a business district, and in a sense it was a town for a limited number of people. However, since the new Maru Building was rebuilt, it has become bustling with people enjoying strolling and shopping even on weekends when it is quiet. I feel that many people across generations, including Nihonbashi and Roppongi, are interested in town development. It can be said that we are in an era where people of all ages and genders can share the results of town development and evolve it. I have also heard that retired people who have worked in Marunouchi for many years visit Marunouchi and enjoy the changes in the town. Following in the footsteps of Kunio Maekawa, who sought architecture that can withstand the passage of time, mature richly, and shape the landscape while blending into the environment, I would like to strive to create towns that will remain in people's hearts and pass them on to the next generation.