In Japan, a tiny model of Tokyo could help the city’s development
- The aim of the 1:1,000 scale replica by property developer Mori Building is to understand the capital’s history and how it can adapt for future needs
- These include creating more ‘garden cities’ within the city, adding more greenery and local cultural facilities and reducing congestion
In a discreet, windowless room beneath central Tokyo lies another Japanese city. It has skyscrapers and vast bridges, port facilities and rail networks, sprawling shopping districts and narrow lanes fronted by single-storey dwellings that make up the old shitamachi districts, a hangover from the years immediately after World War II.
The Mori Building Urban Lab model includes detailed replicas of all the city’s major landmarks – the Tokyo SkyTree, the towering offices of the metropolitan government, the Imperial Palace and more – but also each individual building.
The model measures 24 metres by 15 metres and replicates Tokyo’s 13 central wards, depicting them in minute detail. Each tiny structure is handmade by model-makers who take photographs of each face of every building.
The images are printed out and applied to a styrofoam block in the precise shape of each building, before the blocks are placed onto a scale map of the city.
While Mori has buildings in all of the city’s 23 wards, the firm’s core interests are in the 13 areas that are the real commercial hub of the capital, with the other 10 largely being suburban sprawl with limited business development potential.
The model, not open to the public but affecting their lives nonetheless, may be time-consuming to create, but the firm maintains there is a grand reason behind it.