From Gray to Green

site planning and urban infrastructure systems
Japan 2030

 

 


 
  • EOD Ecologic Oriented Development
  • Site and Infrastructure Planning Studio
  • Sustainable Housing and Community Design Workshop AJDW

These projects are a product of a long-term collaboration between Japan’s Sekisui House and MIT School of Architecture and Planning formed to envision, design, and build prototypical sustainable residential communities for society in the years 2030-2050.

The Spring 2009 Site Planning Studio is a continuation of the Advanced Japan Design Workshop of Fall 2008. While the 2008 Workshop established the general parameters and frameworks for sustainable communities, the goal of the Site Planning Studio was to create a manual for Ecologic Oriented Development and infrastructure design that derives from the study area’s typologies.

Overall, the research represents the work of a joint project team of graduate students from the School’s Architecture and Urban Planning Departments and staff members from Sekisui House working under the guidance of Dean Adèle Naudé Santos, Professor Eran Ben-Joseph, Professor Shun Kanda, and Professor Andrew Scott.

Sekisui House has a long history of building and developing high-quality homes and communities. A leader in innovation, Sekisui House partners with architects and universities in order to experiment and advance the technologies and practice of community design.

Japan’s urban communities are facing a demographic and environmental crisis typical of many advanced and developing nations. A declining birthrate, a rapidly aging population, and changes in social habits have depopulated many of Japan’s New Towns; this change has been accompanied with stigma and neglect, all representative of the relative inflexibility of the New Town form.

Using Tama New Town in Japan as a reference, the project team is conducting studies on sustainable community design and ideal residential housing from a global perspective in order to accumulate new insights and technical expertise that can be utilized in future business. The hope is that this project will serve as a useful guideline on a global scale.