Japanese Machizukuri and Community Engagement

Over the past few decades, Japan has faced severe earthquake disasters, an increasing ageing population, declining birth rates and widening social disparities. These issues have served to highlight gaps left by top-down governance approaches and the urgent need to create resilient societies using more traditional models.

Shigeru Satoh is Professor Emeritus of Waseda University, former Director of the Research Institute of Urban and Regional Study and former President of the Architectural Institute of Japan. He has spearheaded the Japanese machizukuri movement (a community-based comprehensive approach to improving built environmental practices) both in theory and actual practice.

Preface. Acknowledgments. Contributors. List of Figures. Part 1. 1. Introduction to machizukuri. 2. Brief History of Machizukuri in Three Regions in East Asia. 3.The first generation: the emergence of machizukuri. 4. The Second Generation: Participation, Collaboration and Co-creation. 5. The Third Generation: Aiming at Open Area Management. Part 2. 6. Machizukuri Methodology and Tools. 7. Machizukuri and Planning. Part 3. 8. Regenerating the urban structure in historic districts: An approach through projects representing traditional culture and crafts, created by entrepreneurs and craftsmen in Takaoka City. 9. Discovering the authenticity of the historical landscape and the original urban context through small collaborative design projects in a local castle-town city, Tsuruoka City. 10. Revitalization of the central urban area by local residents in Nabari City, Mie Prefecture. 11. The Rebirth of Mixed-Use Blocks in the Decayed Historic Centre of Takefu in Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture. 12. Reorganization of the Local Housing Production System for Maintaining and Improving the Historical Landscape.13. The Urban Renewal Method Based on the Community Principle: The Case of the Yuyuan Area of the Shanghai Historical Scene Conservation District. 14. Develpoment of the Furano Machizukuri Company movement connecting rural areas and urban core revitalization in Furano city. 15. Post-disaster reconstruction of central Ishinomaki through the formation of local initiatives. 16. Regeneration of the cultural landscape of the fisheries city of Kesennuma through collaboration in machizukuri by multiple project-implementing bodies. 17. Community Empowerment Recovery after the ChiChi Earthquake: The Case of Taomi Ecovillage, Pu-li. 18. "SOHO City Mitaka": Machizukuri as Creative Urban Governance. 19. Machizukuri as Glocalization: Progress in Highly Dense "shitamachi" Lower-town Areas in Collaboration with Tsukishima Community School, Tokyo. 20. Machizukuri in the Future. Glossary of Technical Terms particular to Japanese. Index.