DATE: June 7, 2018 14:00-19:00 VENUE: Zou-no-hana Terrace
SPEAKERS Ryuji Era/Executive Director of Yokohama Arts Foundation Masao Koizumi/Architect, Koizumi atelier/Designer of Zou-no-hana Terrace/Park Rui Izumiyama/Assistant Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, Univ. of Tokyo , Ph.D./Chief editor of sotonoba.place Motoko Tanaka/GROUND LEVEL INC. CEO Hideki Kikushima/Kikushima Corporation Yasuyuki Akimoto/Visiting Professor of Yokohama National University/Yokohama Area Management Yuki Katsura/Urban design division, City of Yokohama Eisuke Sugizaki/Yokohama Arts Foundation Toshihiro Banba/Architect, abanba inc./Assistant designer of Zou-no-hana Terrace/Park Tsutomu Okada/Art director of Zou-no-hana Terrace
Chairperson Shnichiro Moriya/Planner of Zou-no-hana Terrace
Zou-no-hana Park and Zou-no-hana Terrace are cultural and tourist facilities established on the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Port of Yokohama. On June 7, 2018, kickoff talks were held to mark the start of the Future Scape Project, in advance of the Park and Terrace’s 10th anniversary in June 2019.
During the three-hour talks, guests who have been involved in urban design of Yokohama’s inner-city seaboard area, the design of Zou-no-hana Park and Terrace, cultural activities in the surrounding area, and activities to generate public space in Yokohama and other places as well came together to discuss Yokohama’s future and the nature of public space in various cities worldwide, introducing case examples and exchanging opinions. The talks are transcribed in this report and digest video.
Opening Talk
First, Ryuji Era, who has been involved with the urban design of Yokohama’s inner-city seaboard area, talked about the history, characteristics and future possibilities of this area’s development. Next, designer Masao Koizumi outlined the backstory of Zou-no-hana Park and Terrace’s establishment and the intentions behind their design.
Ryuji Era:
My areas of expertise are open space design and landscaping, and I’ve worked on projects at Minato Mirai 21, Marunouchi, and Grand Front Osaka. Today we’re mainly going to be talking about Yokohama. The important thing in designing Minato Mirai 21 was that it expanded public space that gives people access to the waterfront, extending as far as Yamashita Park. In this public space, there are parks of the usual urban type, harborside parks which we would tend to call “open space” rather than parkd per se, and plaza-type spaces such as wide roadways and former railway sites. The area includes not just the flagship development zone extending from the Landmark Tower to Queen’s Square and Pacifico, but also these other diverse spaces, and the value of this space as a whole should be sustained for centuries to come.
In January 2006, the National Art Park Plan was proposed, a grand design for development of creative and public activities in public spaces in Yokohama’s inner-city seaboard area. I think we can sum up the direction of this new endeavor with the single word “art.” In Marunouchi too, all kinds of activities have been taking place in the area around the Marunouchi Building including Miyuki-dori, but I believe public space should not just be utilized as a venue for holding events, but take into consideration the structure of the city over the medium to long term. It’s important to conduct experiments and events that open up various possibilities, like diversifying uses of roadways, encouraging citizen participation, and getting commercial business operators on board. And then there’s area branding. In Yokohama’s case, it’s vital to get people excited about the idea of a Creative City.
Masao Koizumi:
Zou-no-hana Park consists of three zones: the grassy area called Kaiko no Oka, or Kaiko Hill; the paved area called Kaiko Hatoba, or Kaiko Wharf; and the restored Zou-no-Hana Hatoba. The park is a keystone of Yokohama’s urban development, with two intersecting axes, one along the waterfront with continuous open space bordering on the bay, and another consisting of Nihon-Odori, the boulevard leading to Yokohama Park. The original port was constructed in 1859, but after it got bigger and busier they moved it, and the idea here was to redevelop the area around the old port to mark the 150th anniversary of the port’s opening.
The Port & Harbor Bureau and the Creative City Headquarters led a proposal competition with the themes of “a port with history” and “connecting the past and future.” What we proposed was to utilize the shape of the curved breakwater, and place structures (screen panels) along a curved extension of that line, creating a large enclosure of the inner water area. We originally envisioned them functioning like furniture, but in the construction stage the design was modified to a simple panel form. Architects tend to visualize only positive uses of their spaces, but in the case of this project, the space was to be open 24 hours a day, and we had to think about people potentially being rough on the space. A lot of adjustments were made from this standpoint. Kaiko Wharf is at the point where Nihon-Odori hits the water, and one of the goals was to make it a wide open space with few obstacles so all kinds of events could be held there. But that also meant no shade, which was a problem in terms of making it a public space people could enjoy using. A slope was made on the grassy area so it could be used as outdoor audience seating.
The 15th anniversary of the port’s opening was marked with construction of Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall, nicknamed Jack’s Tower. For the 100th, they built the Marine Tower. However, I feel that celebrating the 150th anniversary not with a tower but with open space for the public to gather shows that we’ve reached maturity as a civic society.
Part 1Urban design from the bottom up: Recent case examples of public space utilization
Following the Opening Talk, three guests made presentations featuring examples of activities both in and outside Yokohama City. First, Rui Izumiyama, who manages the public space-related media platform Sotonoba.Place and is involved with experimental events involving public space, introduced the ideas behind these activities, case studies from overseas, and the idea of Tactical Urbanism. Next, Motoko Tanaka spoke about public-themed activities that people can pursue independently, and her insights into them, which she derived from her own projects including serving free coffee at an outdoor stall. Hideo Kikushima gave an overview of a street furniture competition led by his own company, and involving a variety of companies, and discussed its significance.
Rui Izumiyama:
I run a Web magazine called Sotonoba.Place, which means something like “outdoor place,” based on the idea of making outdoor spaces into more desirable destinations. Recently I’ve been involved with a lot of social experiments and so on that aim to promote loosening of zoning laws. I usually use the English phrase “public space” rather than its Japanese equivalent, kokyo kukan. That’s because the Japanese phrase makes us think of spaces that the government owns, like roads, parks, rivers, and ports, and doesn’t convey the notion that these spaces belong to everybody. The word “public” has a broader meaning, and for example, recently we see privately owned parking lots, vacant lots and so on being used in a park-like manner.
And I would like to see public spaces used not only for one-off events, but as places where “public life” is lived. People don’t just live in their homes, they live in their cities. How can we enrich these spaces for everybody, make them places people want to go? What are the purposes of events held in public spaces? These are important questions.
Tactical Urbanism is an approach to urban development where there is a plan of action for transforming a city, incorporating both a long-term vision for change and a series of short-term, low-cost, small-scale projects in communities. Things can start as one-day or one-month projects and then be gradually lengthened, upgraded, and eventually become a permanent part of the urban environment. For example, in New York City there is the Times Square Plaza Program, and in San Francisco they’ve started something called Park(ing) Day.
Motoko Tanaka:
I’m running a company called Ground Level Inc., with the idea that developing things on the ground floor, or the first floor, means developing communities. In the past, I was engaged in architecture-related media planning and editing. Just when I was thinking I wanted to participate more directly in the community, I got involved with an event on the site of the former Tokyo Denki University campus in Kanda, Tokyo, and carried out a project called Urban Camp. People set up tents in this really grim kind of inner-city space, and as I watched them enjoying spending their time there in various ways, it struck me that I wanted to do work that would liven people up, bring out their active side.
I set up a bar counter in one corner of our office and served alcoholic beverages to acquaintances, and when that wasn’t exciting enough, I also went out into the community and served people free coffee. What struck me at that time is that you can launch a public endeavor all by yourself, even if you’re just one person. The project was fun because the coffee was free, it wasn’t business. It could be called a hobby, but not a hobby for personal satisfaction, rather a means of enjoying spending time and interacting with others. I think you could call it a “third-party intervention” type of leisure pursuit, one that can contribute to and be of use to the public and society.
When people in the community take an interest in what I’m doing, I tell them, next it’s your turn to do something like this. There’s nothing better than when people who live in a neighborhood, or are involved with a facility, do things on their own initiative. I’m not talking about organizing events, but about ordinary people doing these kind of public projects on an everyday basis. That’s what I’d like to see. When an individual becomes an active participant rather than a passive occupant of their community, they realize that it is “their” community, and that’s the kind of world I hope we can achieve.
Hideki Kikushima:
Since 2016 we have been doing something called the Street Furniture Competition. Last year it was held in Grand Mall Park in front of the Yokohama Museum of Art. It all started when my company was marking our 50th anniversary, and we started thinking about how we could give something back to the community, some kind of project that would heighten the city’s appeal. We get about 100 to 200 entries every year, and after evaluating their functionality and design in a screening that’s open to the public, we select three pieces and actually manufacture and exhibit them.
We’re a construction company, so why are we doing something like this? Because I believe that companies, too, need to play an active role in making our communities better places. Our head office is in Konan Ward, but when we opened a branch in the Kannai district, it struck me as an opportunity to create a venue for exchange, where could interact with all kinds of other companies and think together about what kind of city we want Yokohama to be.
Part 2 Utilizing public space, the Yokohama way
Finally, project planner Shinichiro Moriya spoke about the future of the project. In addition to the attendees from Part 1, other stakeholders who have been engaged with Zou-no-hana Park and Terrace also joined in and discussed its potential.
Eisuke Sugizaki:
At the foundation, I act as something like a liaison connecting art and society. For example, the event Kannaigai Open! is carried out mainly by creators who regularly work in Yokohama, and they work together to stage events on the city streets. To make sure there are no legal problems, I obtain various permits and go around greeting stakeholders, and this is a process I think would be quite troublesome for people not used to it. Also I have been in charge of events, like the Yokohama Jazz Promenade, that utilize the public spaces created through the urban planning of Yokohama in various ways, and makie them more noticeable.
In the context of the Creative City so far, I don’t think we have seen much in terms of artists interpreting and working with public spaces. I think there are a lot of people who interpret the concept from a philosophical standpoint, as a kind of PR and branding for the city. Thus far BankART 1929 has taken a lot of innovative approaches to public spaces, including other Creative City Core Area Bases, like mounting a performance on a stage floating on a canal, but this kind of endeavor has not become a routine thing. I think we have the germs of many ideas to be utilized in subsequent events, but I also get the impression that of a disconnect between these interesting experiments, or models, and the system we have in place. But even before the city started this campaign, the people of Yokohama were aware of the waterside and boundary-zone environments and made use of public space in various ways, so we have a lot of good precedents to look at moving forward.
Okada:
Zou-no-hana Park occupies national land, and it is managed by the Port & Harbor Bureau of Yokohama City. The Culture and Tourism Bureau is in charge of its utilization, and they outsource work to us at Spiral. So, whenever we want to do something on site, we need to get in touch with the Port & Harbor Bureau and obtain permission. However, there is not nearly the volume of notifications to be submitted or negotiations to be carried out as there are when seeking to utilize other public spaces, or roads, and it is a very simple and systematic process. Mr. Sugizaki spoke about how it was difficult for original creative endeavors to take root, but at Zou-no-hana Park I feel we have a positive relationship with the system, and at the same time can carry out a variety of projects.
The reason we want to work with artists in a place like this, on projects like this, is that we want to apply their creativity and the creative power of art itself to society in general. Seeing what kind of outcomes this produces is our greatest source of motivation. What can art do in our communities? In line with what Ms. Tanaka was saying, a true artist is an individual who creates art purely for the love of doing it. There are issues that the artist wants to deal with, and he or she engages in all sorts of activities to do this. If we can draw on these people’s power while doing exciting things in public spaces, we should be able to change the way mechanisms operate and transform people’s mentalities. And we are working to see what we can achieve in this area.
Yasuyuki Akimoto:
There are all kinds of public spaces. Some are open spaces in private-sector buildings, like the Dockyard Garden in the Landmark Tower. It’s relatively easy to utilize these spaces to generate excitement in the community because it’s clear who owns and manages the spaces. Then you have Rinko Park and Zou-no-hana Park, which are designated as “harborside open spaces.” As you may know, harborside open spaces and urban parks are both public spaces in Yokohama, but they are managed by different entities. One is run by the Port & Harbor Bureau, and the other by the Environmental Planning Bureau. Either way, because it’s a public space, the government takes an interest in how it’s used. Meanwhile, roads are managed by the Road & Highway Bureau, and the police are also involved.
Things get even more complicated when the public space is a river or a port. It’s difficult to give people free rein to use them while also protecting citizens from disasters and epidemics. At the same time, right now the national government is taking positive steps to create frameworks for regional revitalization. But it seems to me that these systems, the administrative institutions that deal with issues related to revitalizing the “ground level” Ms. Tanaka spoke about, are all different, and they may not all be moving in the same direction.
Ryuji Era:
In terms of management, the space we’re talking about is, after all, an urban park. So I think the crucial point is how to introduce the public-square model, the idea of diversity, into these discussions about systems.
Masao Koizumi:
When designing parks, it struck me that a public space for citizens should change gradually according to the season. If the perceptions of the people in it are going to change, the space that contains them naturally ought to change as well. With that in mind, I try not to over-engineer spaces. I hope the current project will lead to gradual change, and that it will not be frozen as a work created by a single architect, but will become a true public space that people can genuinely use.
Rui Izumiyama:
I hope that the use of public spaces will not begin and end with one-off “events,” and I think it is important that not only the people we call artists, but also ordinary citizens, people walking around the city, engage with art and that these experiences remain with them afterwards. It will be great if, on occasions like this one, we can conduct social experiments that reduce the burden of adjusting spaces so that everyone can do what they want to do.
Motoko Tanaka:
I see creators as professionals that supply people with a steady flow of creativity, but I also believe that creativity itself is something that everyone possesses. We need to find ways of bringing this out. It is not good to take a sheet of blank paper, so to speak, and fill it in completely, but it is also not good to hand the public a completely blank page. The most important thing is to draw underlying, guiding lines.
Hideki Kikushima:
I think the fact that the eyes of the general public, artists, and companies are all turning to public spaces is an indication of urban maturity. Many people who until recently were happy as long as their own private spaces are comfortable, are now venturing out into public space. Companies need to ensure there are spaces enjoyed not only by themselves but also by city residents, people coming from elsewhere, and all sorts of people who work in the community. That’s why I hope to see stakeholders in projects like this one adopt viewpoints that effectively bring companies into the fold.
Yuki Katsura:
I became involved with Urban Design Yokohama after responding to a recruitment of employees for the 150th anniversary project, and I was profoundly moved that the Zou-no-hana Park and Terrace were the first things I worked on.
There was some mention of adjusting plans and ideas, but I think whether you’re in an intermediary position or you’re directly involved with things on site, when you’re trying to do something new it’s important to come up with variations, to find ideas that can win over the people managing the space, to go the extra mile. When you’re in a position sandwiched between the intentions of the players involved and the need to come up with proposals that the other side will agree to, you need a kind of staying power to hold to that intermediate position. I hope to see environments where both people on the front lines, and people working in a position between them and the powers that be, can fulfill their potential and enjoy their work.
Toshihiro Banba:
During the process of designing Zou-no-hana Park and Terrace, I was at Koizumi Atelier. Since going independent, I have been involved in projects like construction of the venue for the Yokohama Paratriennale last year, and I’ve had increasing opportunities to work not only as an architect designing buildings, but also with the standpoint of using them.
This has made me think not only about maintaining facilities, but also about changing them, or the way they are used, in accordance with various projects. I think that flexibility is necessary, that we need to see things not only in terms of “hard” or “soft,” but also in terms of the flexibility to foster collaborations with art projects like this one.
Eisuke Sugizaki:
We need to view differences in values positively. For example, with Grand Mall Park, you have a park sandwiched between commercial and cultural facilities, and the commercial and non-commercial are potentially in conflict. Museums’ projects involve both what the museum wants to do and the public good in a broader sense, and the same is true of commercial businesses. How can we work together and find positive synergies between different value systems? I think that as Mr. Katsura says, it will be difficult unless we have people intentionally adopting intermediate, interpretive roles.
I also think that when you do things like block off roads to traffic and liven up parks, it’s important for someone to monitor and study, with a good degree of diligence, what kind of changes occur, like whether people were able to access areas more easily, the number of pedestrians increased, their behavior changed and so forth. I don’t think the burden of assessing these things should be placed entirely on the players who utilize public spaces.
Yasuyuki Akimoto:
It’s important to look at and adopt good ideas from players, the kind of ideas that administrators in charge would never come up with, and to think about how to follow up on the ideas adopted. We already have a lot of architects and other experts on utilizing waterside spaces in Yokohama, but the issue is how to get them to follow through on these projects, and how to get people at City Hall to follow through flexibly within the current system.
Hideki Kikushima:
If this project ends up being just a one-time event at Zou-no-hana Park, that won’t be very appealing to companies. But if we can point the way toward positively boosting the brand value of this entire area, and by extension the image of all the companies active here in Yokohama, we will see companies who recognize the value of this endeavor getting involved, not only financially but in terms of concrete action.
Shnichiro Moriya:
In the future, when soliciting ideas from the public, I think instead of just ideas for “what it would be nice to have” gathered in workshops, we need more proactive ideas for “what I want to do!” Whether we’re talking about artists or members of the public, we want to see people talking not just about what they wish someone would do, but about what they individually, actively want to do, and what they think they’re capable of doing. I believe that’s the “future scape” of the social collective.
Tsutomu Okada:
Zou-no-hana Park is a public park, and that means that change is inevitable. I think the 10-year anniversary of its establishment ought to be the start of an ongoing process of observing how it changes and improves in the future.