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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2019

Multiple Fabric Assessment: Analysis of the Urban Form of Osaka, Japan

Résumé

Japan is characterized by a massive urbanization rate (93.0%) and a system of cities mostly made of a limited number of overlapping and dense megapolises. Within these hyper-urbanized spaces, distinctions between urban fabric types are becoming harder and harder to identify. This is not only due to the accumulation over time of different layers of urbanizations in a context of gigantic continuous built-up area (Sorensen, 2002) but also to weak land use zoning regulations and to a model also allowing a fast piecemeal reorganization of intra-urban space. Indeed, in Japan, houses, buildings, or even whole urban blocks can be easily demolished to make way to new urban projects as compared to western countries where renovation and rehabilitation usually prevail. This is due to the use of lightweight construction materials in general and a housing market dominated by prefabricated homes. It results in a lifespan for buildings reaching only 30 years (MLITT, 2007). As compared to countries where urban fabrics are more perennial and easily distinguishable (old center, modern planning, residential areas, etc.), in Japanese cities we might observe a strong heterogeneity of building type distribution within a complex polycentric structure (Shelton, 2012). Yet, even within such a model, it should be still possible to recognize the internal organization of the morphological structure of the urban form. Identifying urban fabrics and studying their spatial organization is of paramount importance in a wide range of disciplines seeking to understand how cities and their public spaces are functioning, evolving and especially in Japan, mutating. Multiple Fabric Assessment (Araldi and Fusco, 2017), a method specifically conceived for describing urban fabrics from a street-based perspective has proved successful in the analysis of European metropolitan areas (Fusco and Araldi 2017, Guyot et al. 2018) but had yet to be tested in extra-European contexts. To sum up, a standard spatial partition is defined (from a network-constrained Thiessen tessellation) and a set of morphometric indicators are calculated for each spatial unit. Local spatial patterns are recognized for each indicator and a final clustering allows the identification of urban fabrics families. For this research, a hyper-urbanized sub-space of 2,500 km 2 including Osaka and Kobe and accounting for around 10 million inhabitants has been selected. Within this space, nine distinctive urban fabric families have been identified and cross-analyzed with field observations and literature. The high adaptability of MFA protocol allowed its implementation to a Japanese case study, where it has been possible to identify coherent families of urban fabrics. However, it should be stated that, (1) these families and their spatial organization are not always the same as those usually found in European cities and (2) some families are indeed characterized by a wide range of building types (Perez et al. 2018). Finally, Osaka implemented urban policies aimed at improving the living conditions of the working class under Hajime Seki office (mayor from 1923 to 1935). Close to a century later, his vision remains in some sub-spaces, with for example the perseverance of high-quality residential environments in some peripheral areas.
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Dates et versions

hal-03533221 , version 1 (18-01-2022)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03533221 , version 1

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Joan Perez, Giovanni Fusco, Alessandro Araldi, Takashi Fuse. Multiple Fabric Assessment: Analysis of the Urban Form of Osaka, Japan. 3rd International Land Use Symposium - ILUS 2019, Dec 2019, Paris, France. ⟨hal-03533221⟩
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