A Slow Utopia_ Tokyo 2040
“Crowds and Power” 2017 at SCI-Arc
Instructor: Timothy Ivison
Offramp, Wired_ A Japanese Gerontopia
There is a place called Teba Island with only 70 inhabitants, all aged over 65 years old. The size of the island is 0.4 square kilometer, and only able to access by ship from main island of Japan. In the 17th century, people started living the island to increase fishing industries. There used to be 1000 people in the early of 19th century, and there were more machine than now. As fish industry becoming smaller, many people in the island moved to main island of Japan. Although there are no cars on the island, no restaurants, the islanders enjoy their life and are satisfied with their life through fishing, harvesting vegetables, chatting with neighbors and walking around the island. People can hear nature sounds since there is no noise by car or machines. They are happy with their life there. Time flows very slowly on the island. This island is becoming one of the place many modern people get tired of high tech society move in, and enjoy the natural way of life.
In terms of the decline of fertility and increased life expectancy, many countries both on developed and developing world are becoming aging societies, however, none of the other country’s situation is as serious as it is Japan. The aging problem is one of the biggest challenges for the Japanese society today. Not only by increasing the senior people, the whole population in Japan is likely to decline by 20 percent within a few decades. As the dependency ratio to over 65 years old people to under 65 years old people was 1.7 to 10 in 1990, it is estimated to be 6.5 to 10 in 2040. The situation in the countryside is better than in the city because of a match between the lifestyle of the city and the senior people’s demands. Many seniors return to countryside after their retirement, searching for a quiet and slow life. However, it is impossible to bring all old people who live in the city to the country since cities in Japan have a huge number of seniors. Since most of cities in Japan are designed for a society dominated by the young, working age people, it is difficult for seniors to adapt to city life. With the increase in “love marriage” compared to arranged marriage, the divorce rate rapidly increased after 1970 and many couples started living separately from their parents. This increased nuclear family, and a large number of elderly people became isolated from society. It makes aging society more worrisome because most of the elderly are not able to rely on physically active people. The modern day’s elderly are required to manage their own life. Moreover, most seniors already retired from their jobs so they make their living by their pension and savings money. Although they have more free time than when they used to work, there is only little money for spending on leisure activities.
Japanese cities reached a social turning point within architectural and urban discourse. As the majority changes from young to old, the infrastructure and housing design of the city are also required to change. What if 50 percent of Tokyo’s population is over 65 years old? Old people used to be treated as a burden to society since they were minority in the old world. It could be the case like the movie “Children of Men”, in as future with just adults and no more new babies. Most of SCI-FI movies show the future with high-rise buildings and robotic automation, however, it would be slightly different if the majority of citizens are seniors and tend to prefer a nostalgic and slow life.
Physical aspects are one of the biggest problems for the elderly in Tokyo today. Most of the seniors aged over 65 years old face physical weakness compared with the time when they were young. Although Tokyo has a good transportation in terms of trains and buses, those are required to follow the flow of the crowd. Moreover, most of the housing in Tokyo which was built after World War II are made by wood, and have many steep stairs or uncomfortable gaps between rooms. Furnitures are designed for sitting close to tatami, which required people to bend their knees. This housing style was created in the 5th century in Japan when the life expectancy was nearly 40 years old, which means people usually died before losing their physical strength. Although the modern Japanese housing designed by starchitect is made by iron concrete, it is basically for the younger people and only a few elderly.
In spite of those many issues, the Japanese government and some companies take actions towards the aging society. Since Tokyo is famous as having a lot of convenience stores, people are able to find small convenience stores every 5 minutes walk, many stores started making products targeted to the elderly. In the past, convenience stores were mainly for young people who did not cook themselves so they could buy fast food such as cup noodles or hamburgers or chicken nuggets. On the other hand, in a Lawson convenience store in the north of Tokyo, there are many nutritious, ready to eat food which is not required to chew so much, like vegetable porridge or soup. It is true that not all the elderly have difficulty for chewing, and still many of them prefer to cook, however, those products make easier for the elderly to eat and reduce the household activity. When it compares to taking a 15 minutes walk to the supermarket once a week and cooking everyday, walking 5 minutes and getting ready to eat food sounds better if it has almost the same taste and nutrition value as the meals they cook. Another current changes in Tokyo is the type of facilities which are under construction, sadly, most the wealthy business in Japan now is running nursing home and crematory. Contrary to the number of kindergartens being closed nowadays, the number of nursing homes built is increasing. There is one nursing home, Mutsukawa Day Care Center for Elderly, designed by SANAA in Kanagawa, Japan. It is a one-story community center, and the project was intended to maximize natural light, to allow one continuous relation between room and room. In the nursing home, some seniors are physically active enough to walk around, but some are not and sometimes have Alzheimer. Instead of defined the function of the each rooms, SANAA tried to manage the building as so each room allowed users for multiple functions.
From the architectural problem, the housing in Tokyo that is owned by over 65 years olds was built between 1950s to 1960s. These houses are mostly made by wood, and there are many steps on the border of the room. According to ADA code, most stairs in those houses are illegal to be built today. Since earthquakes often occur in Japan, many houses have the problem to open the door, especially Japanese old houses that just have a sliding door. Many old people often leave the interior door open because they are not able to do so after they closing it. Although the modern Japanese architecture is constructed by iron and concrete, one of the biggest architectural problems in Japan is fire accident in wooden houses which are basically owned by the elderly living in east Tokyo, where the majority of the residents are elderly. The interesting thing is that physically active young people live more on barrier free houses or apartments with elevators and western furniture. It would be better for both the young and the old people to switch their housing style. Actually there is a project from an architecture office called Mokuchin Kikaku which provided vacant wooden house in the middle of elderly people’s neighborhood to university student for very reasonable rent. After this attempt, many young people found that one or two stories wooden houses are more attractive than high-rise concrete apartments for them. Then, the students talked to more seniors so they felt more part of the community than isolated (Most of Japanese university students live in studio alone.) Instead of changing housing style, there would be interaction between youth and elderly.
The second theory describes about the infrastructure in Tokyo. As previously mentioned, there would be change to the whole city’s speed if half of the population in Tokyo is over 65 years old. Not only in Tokyo, most of the metropolitan area is dominated by the young, especially working age people, 18 to 65 years old. The objective of the city is based on the productivity for the business, so most of the public spaces are prioritized by speed and efficiency. For example, the Metro in Tokyo has around 20 million passenger per day which is double of the annual passenger number in a city like Berlin. I used metro only few times in the rush hour in Tokyo although I had lived there for 6 years because it is very uncomfortable. According to the report of Tokyo Institute of Technology, occupancy rate inside a train during rush hour is 250%, and physical distance between each passenger is 1 inch, only 20% of the passengers can take the seats while rest of people need to stand or sometimes floated and barely able to breathe. When it comes to the elderly, it would be a nightmare. If a old man aged around 70 years old try to take the train for 15 minutes for three stops at 8 am, the first difficulty is in the platform: although there are many escalators, most people run or step up very fast in rush hour so the people who try to remain still in the same place on the escalator are pushed by others. Then, although the old man is able to reach the front of the train, passengers are required to move out and enter very fast and smoothly so the train which takes just one to two minutes. Even harder for him would be inside the train. Even I was 24 years old, physically healthy, I felt so much pain and pressure on my arm and legs because of pushing from others. If the said man is in the same situation, he would definitely break his bone or pass out due to the lack of oxygen. It is ironic that not only old people, but also young people hate this situation in Tokyo. If all of the passengers in this train became over 65 years old, the vehicles would be required to increase the number of seats and the time of the door to open would be longer. Moreover, nobody might push others in the escalators, so it would be more comfortable and safer.
In London, Sophie Handler’s “The Pensioner’s Alternative Street Furniture Guide,” he put soft cushion to many poles in the public street, so old people are able to take a rest in the middle of the city. As Yona Friedman also says, changing urban design is somehow effective more by small elements than changing the mega structure of the city.
Although seniors were discriminated by the society, sooner or later there will be more elderly than the youth. It sounds like a disadvantage for the world becoming aging society in terms of convenience, however, it could be the turning point for the architectural design development. In the long time, “trend” was created by young people because youth was majority of the society. Society, culture and cities are influenced by majority people in the period. When the generation of the majority people shift to older, the center of the world become for them. Modern architecture is searching for new ideas by changing the surface of the building, such as facade design or putting green on the building. Urban planning or housing design based on the slow, elderly bodies would be the new solution for architecture. Making a slow city would be beneficial not only for the elderly but also for disabled people. Those changes at a fundamental level of the city, might form the new style of cities, and could be the 21st century’s utopia.