Tokyo, Japan | Temple University, Spring 2006

Cities have developed their own sets of rules allowing them to evolve into self-organizing complex systems. In analyzing the usage patterns of urban denizens in Tokyo (and more specifically in the Ikebukuro neighborhood), there is potential to develop a design procedure for residential housing that can be integrated into the city’s organizational process.

Urban residents choose sites and housing units based on preferences and qualities such as efficiency, adaptability, and accessibility. Sampling these preferences provides the basis for mapping appropriate sites and configuring units and complexes suitable for their use.

The benefit of such a process is the responsiveness of housing complexes to the desires of users. The long term effect of this process can be described as a feedback loop. As new residents are placed, non-residential land use will intensify around the site--leading to different landscapes for future residential complexes. In this way, the system self organizes in response to what exists and what is desired.

The final result of this thesis investigation is a systematic organizing procedure for urban housing driven by choice.

Final Thesis Document, Fall 2005.