Abstract—The paper introduces some broad considerations on the relation between the process of urban growth and architectural development in modern Japan, which unfolded since the middle of the 20th century and heavily relied on new architectural ideas and models, and the progress of building technologies and infrastructure development staged during the year of rapid economic growth (1950s-1960s). It investigates how the urban environment which resulted was shaped according to the social, historical and cultural context of the country at the time, and was linked to some fundamental ideas derived from Western urban and architectural theories. The fragmentation of the Japanese cites, which entered modernity earlier than other East Asian countries and witnessed first-hand the phase of surge and criticism of Modernism, have been influenced by the formation of a large extension of interconnected conurbations forming an intricate and dense urban structure, the so-called Tokaido Megalopolis, a continuous and integrated urban corridor stretching from Tokyo region to Fukuoka city.
Index Terms—Modern Japanese architecture, Japanese urbanism, Tokaido megalopolis, Tokyo, urban growth.
Raffaele Pernice is with the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Xi‟an Jiaotong - Liverpool University (e-mail: raffaeleitaly@yahoo.com).
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Cite: Raffaele Pernice, "Changing Architectures and Evolving Urbanism in Modern Japanese Urban Environment," International Journal of Engineering and Technology vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 351-357, 2014.
