If you read something about Tokyo, some of the most comment you will find are: “confused and chaotic”. In western culture we tend to imagine Tokyo as an enormous creature that swallows people, cars, activities. I dare to say something that might sound strange: “Tokyo is not chaotic!”. How could we otherwise explain a system of 30 million people moving in a highly dense area with such a punctuality? As Roland Barthes observed, Tokyo reminds us that the irrational is just another of the possible orders. Tokyo is coherent is organized. What misleads our impression is that this city follows other parameters therefore to our eyes looks chaotic and without rules.
There is a very interesting book showing the research done by Atelier Bow-Wow: “Made in Tokyo”. Trough 70 examples of “Dame-Architecture” (dame means bad, wrong) it shows the hidden logic of Tokyo. Which probably is quite far from Tadao Ando purity, or SANAA’s ethereal volumes but surely closer to people’s life.
Look the website.
