Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Smallest Metropolis...


Here's a look at suburbs from a completely different angle in Japan...

James Leahy



The Smallest Metropolis... (Entered May. 11, 2009) Random Musings...

A city planner of a new town had a radical idea. 'Streets' he said, cost money, take time to build, cause pollution, and are ugly, so let's build a city without them!
The other members scoffed at this. 'A city needs streets' they said. This has been a sad fact of life since the beginning of civilization. How do you propose to have a functioning city without streets?'

'Hmm' the radical thinker thought for a minute. 'Got it! Let's put everyone in the city in one big building!' He leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head and a smile on his face. Most of the other planners were convinced, and suitably impressed with his cleverness, but there were still a few dissenters.
'How are we going to convince people to come live in the middle of the countryside, in a town with only one building!' They cried. 'People who move to the countryside want to live in houses!'

'Easy' he said slyly. 'We market it to city folk who want to live surrounded by nature, but not actually touch it. We'll let 'em know they can be one with nature without having any contact with things like pesky bugs, smelly animals or dirty farmers. Oh, and the view will be grand.'

The dissenters tried to find some flaw in his logic, but it was impeccable, so the smallest metropolis in the world was built.

Sitting in the middle of nowhere, Fukushima (correction: the building is actually in Yamagata), surrounded by picturesque mountains and fields, one can only wonder what the occupancy rate is. At 41 floors, it's taller than most buildings in Tokyo.

However if the town does continue to grow (up, not out), it'll be interesting to see how they manage to fit in things like a baseball stadium and an airport....

1 comment: