We drew two perspectives. One of these reveals the surroundings: just as the original beach location of the Lieb House brought home the project’s tenuous position on the sand, our perspective attempts to convey our project’s relationship to the urban environment. This strategy allows the viewer to understand the proportions of the urban fabric. Our other perspective focuses on the house, and reveals the deep opening into its facade. This design decision architecturally juxtaposes the neighboring house’s garage entrance, and initiates a conversation between our proposal and the rhythms of the site. Furthermore, these perspectives incorporate the new order imposed by our site on the Lieb House, and how we interpreted this architecturally.
The Lieb House features a stair that cut through it, linking the beach directly with the living space above. Bedrooms and bathrooms cluster around a central hall on the first floor. The architect points to this contrast between the two levels by painting the facade in two colors. Even so, the paint line doesn’t line up with the floor plate, but just bifurcates the facade. In our proposal we drew from these ideas and decide to incorporate a similar open space above with an urban garden terrace, then rearrange the bottom floor to allow for parking and small garden. This creates a link with the neighbors to form a shared semi-private outdoor space.
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Ikebukuro is a district known for its diversity with a high number of foreign residents. There are more than 200 hundred Chinese shops around turning Ikebukuro into a new Chinatown spot in Tokyo. Recently, even Chinese New Year events have already occurred in the last few years.
Despite that, the “actual migrant life” faces many strug- gles. According to Rhaman (2018), more than a dozen years after the wave of immigrants that occurred after World War II and in the 1990s, there are still many immigration problems in Japan, such as social dispar- ity and stratification. Many immigrants work and live in industries where labor shortages such as long-term care facilities are problematic, as migrants and plenty of these immigrants send funds to their families living in their own countries to support them. In addition, in many cases, students live in parallel to study Japanese, which is essential for working and living in Japan. Con- sequently, the financial, time, physical, and mental bur- dens are even higher.
Moreover, discrimination and social hindrance due to lack of understanding of the culture and religion of one’s own country can be mentioned. Many immi- grants in Japan belong to Islam, and this may not be accepted by the local people and might feel isolated. In addition, many foods and clothes are rooted in their
own culture, and these incomprehension and smok- ing habits can also be mentioned. There are many oth- er life cycle problems in living in Japan, and there are difficulties due to immigrants at various stages of life, such as childbirth, child-rearing, education costs, and nursing care for the elderly. Due to the various diffi- culties experienced by these immigrants, some feel alienated from living in Japan, and a symbiotic society with improved exclusivity in Japan cannot be realized.
Observing the space formed by immigrants around Ikebukuro Station, we can see that there are mul- tiple areas where restaurants developed by immi- grants from China, South Korea, India, etc. are con- centrated and that many immigrants live in this area. A space that makes you feel strong is formed. On the other hand, there are few opportunities for Japanese people to interact equally as residents living in the same place, not as guests to those stores, as the mul- ticultural exchange festival is held only once a year.
Festivals are the act of shifting the world in which we live from everyday to extraordinary to another level. Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin said that the fes- tival removes the class that socially divides human be- ings in daily life and creates a space where all the people who participate in the festival interact in a classless and equal relationship.
In Japan, immigrants are considered to be one of the classes divided in daily life by various scales such as rich and poor, occupation and homeless. The difference in values is so great that it is thought that this difference cannot be easily filled by just having a conversation in the same space. Given that there is a limit to the inter- action in daily life, providing a classless space that has transitioned from the daily life of festivals, as Bakhtin mentions, is a way immigrants to live in Japan.
Festivals might free from the constant feeling of alien- ation, and deepen awareness of living in the same land by increasing exchanges on an equal footing while having each culture in the place of Japanese and Ikebukuro. The festival calendar in the following pages was made based on a research of festivals held all over the world. Ten countries from Europe, North America, South America and Asia were picked considering the number of foreign residents who live by the region of Tokyo based on the chart bellow. The criteria for selection of festival was not limited by local religion and thought, but accord- ing to events in common all over the worlds, like the lu- nar calendar, solstice, equinox and seasons tradition.
PROBLEMS OF DOSTOEVSKY’S POETICS (1984) MICHAIL BAKHTIN
Immigrants living in Japan have experienced many problems like economic aspects and communications. They feel alienated in life because of the many difficul- ties. If this goes on, a symbiotic society that improves exclusivity can’t be achieved. Mikhail Bakhtin said in the book “Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics” that Fes- tival can remove the social class that divides people in daily life. After that, a unique space that all the partic- ipants interact with non-class was formed. Providing this space can decolonize the alienation of immigrants and help to make a symbiotic society.
Commercycle Tokyo
The bike has permeated the city. No longer just a simple transportation device, the bike has encroached upon and infiltrated many aspects of city life. We view the bike through a whole new lens: fashionable object, accessory, lifestyle tool. How can we engage this new bilking conception in a meaningful way? Commercycle Tokyo attempts to fuse once disparate fields: cycling should merge with a more rounded lifestyle approach, to form a new architecture for bicycle. Bikes should no longer be relegated to lanes and roads. Bikes architecture will engage the bicycle with the city.
WATERSIDE ARCHIVE
Until now, the spatial imagination has been defined by the dualism of objective and subjective. Through his critique of the double illusion, Lefebvre appealed to the need to remove the powerful constraints of the logic of dualiism, and proposed trinomialization as a critical othering. The specific methods are as follows.
1 A completely different way of thinking about space, which has been obscured by the exclusive fixation of illusory materialistic and idealistic interpretations.
2 To define the scope of the infinitely expandable spatial imagination in a comprehensive and radically open style (as an aleph).
FIRST SPACE
Practice of space (perceived space): The spatial prac- tice that poses and presupposes social space slowly and surely produces space as it dominates and takes possession of it. It is mediated by human activity, be- havior, and experience (repetitive routines).
SECOND SPACE
Representation of space (space to be thought). Iden- tifies lived experience and perceived objects with thought objects. It is constituted through the means (knowledge, symbols, rules) of decoding spatial prac- tices (actions) connected to order and design.
THIRD SPACE
A space that differs from, but encompasses, the other two spaces. The third space is different from the other two spaces, but encompasses them. It embodies a com- plex symbolic system (the darkness of social life, under- ground aspects, art, etc.).
HISTORY
In the past, Ikebukuro was located in the valley of the Tsurumaki River, which is rich in spring water, and peo- ple used to access this abundant water source to make a living by growing vegetables. However, as time went on and development progressed, the valley was filled with soil, the Tsurumaki River was culverted, and the water was no longer visible from Ikebukuro, and its fertile past was forgotten by the people. By unlocking the under- ground water in the basement of Marui, which is locat- ed on the border between the plains and the valley, and making it behave above ground, we can create an every- day relationship between water and people, and make it a place where the memory of Ikebukuro is passed on.
Vanna Venturi House
Our house is difficult to explain in terms of a single clear idea, just like the Vanna Venturi House in Chestnut Hill, PA. Since the original site is wooded, while our project is situated in a dense urban area, we tried to adapt the plan to this new situation, In order to follow the pattern of the traditional Japanese machiya, we established the short side of the building as its main facade. But the entrance still maintains the character of Venturi’s mother’s house, in terms of its circulation, with the staircase and most of the doors close to the entrance.