The Study Area: During Japan’s post-war economic miracle, a rapid influx of population into Tokyo led land prices to skyrocket, causing many to settle on the more affordable outskirts of the city, leading to a random, rapid urban sprawl. Tama New Town was planned in 1965 to attempt to ease this pressure by providing hundreds of thousands of housing in a master planned, pleasant sub-urban environment. Located just 20km outside Tokyo, Tama New Town became one of the largest housing developments in Japan. Four decades later, with significant changes in demographics, transportation, energy consumption, land use & infrastructure, life-styles and housing demand, Tama New Town faces acute challenges of continuity and transformation. Much of Japan’s current housing, environmental and infrastructure problems are amplified and exemplified in Tama and in need of major shifts toward sustainable re-design and longer-range planning. Although a specific area in Tama is examined and used as a prototype, the project as a whole does not aim to explicitly develop a design and development solution for it.
