Urban Typhoon Workshop
Shimokitazawa, Tokyo    June 2006

Organizers: Yoshimi Shunya, Masami Kobayashi, Matias Echanove, Kimura Kazuho, Tomo Takeda, Taro Taguchi, Joanne Jakovich, Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes, Jillian Puleo, Kei Nakayama, Naoko Aramaki, Kensuke Kato, Kazuki Sakamoto, Yuya Sasaki, Hideaki Sato, Hiroaki Shiba, Yoshihiro Suzuki, Ayako Muneki, Ayako Morimoto, Tomotsugu Yamakawa, Shunichi Ishizaki, Hiroshi Yamamoto.

Shimokitazawa is a thriving, alternative neighbourhood near the centre of Tokyo. Its narrow streets, which were not destroyed during the war, contain a variety of mostly privately owned shops, bars, clubs and restaurants catering to the diverse tastes of its inhabitants. Urban Typhoon was a five day workshop established to provide a framework for participatory activism in response to a massive road construction that the municipality is planning to run through the neighbourhood. The implications of the road plan are that the local culture and unique street morphology will be lost, not only through physical destruction, but also due to the introduction of large, generic commercial centres flanking the 26-metre wide road.

The workshop generated intensive interaction and debate between leading creators and critics from Shimokitazawa, greater Japan as well as numerous other countries. 13 units of ten participants were formed that individually developed schemes to address the issue of the road construction. Focused discussion and creative solutions were generated within groups, but also polarity of opinion emerged between groups, restructuring the critical stance of the workshop as a whole. An important strategy of the workshop design was to initiate relationships with local grassroots activist groups and businesses. This was enhanced by participants during the workshop, benefiting both sides. Most significantly, the feedback from the workshop was the basis for a series of new collaborations between international artists and local activists, enabling the initial structure of the workshop to continue evolving as an experiment in broad-based participatory involvement in a normally inaccessible, local urban issue.

Workshop URL: http://www.urbantyphoon.com

Report of the workshop by Matias Echanove: http://www.urbantyphoon.com/UrbanTyphoonREPORT.pdf