"Here the authors bring us to a new way of understanding Tokyo, reading the metropolis much as we would a European city: a product of historical conditions, which can be highlighted, analyzed and replicated. And so, with the five patterns as guides, “Emergent Tokyo” is a detailed plan to reproduce and mimic the conditions for organic growth: the conditions for an emergent city." --The Japan Times

"If you read one book about Japan this year, it should be the beautiful, new Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City by Jorge Almazan and his Studiolab colleagues, including Joe McReynolds. --Market Urbanism

"...“Emergent Tokyo” is a must-read for city lovers who want to learn more about Tokyo. " --Discourse

"For Almazan, the lesson of these "emergent" Tokyo spaces isn't that architects and urban planners elsewhere can simply drop them down in the middle of their cities. Rather, it is that design professionals should allow healthy cities to develop in the directions toward which they are trending naturally, acting more like midwives than surgeons." --Architectural Record

"Besides being a clearly articulated manifesto for those trying to preserve Tokyo’s emergent properties, Emergent Tokyo helps distill lessons for other cities." --Urban Studies

★A new work by the Associate Professor at Keio University Jorge Almazán, a Spanish architect based in Tokyo, and his team at his architectural design studio! The original English version has its 3rd prints soon after publication.
★An eye-opening city diagram of Tokyo and its iconic city features! An examination of the urban fabric of contemporary Tokyo, a careful and in-depth study and treatment of the historical origins, physical layout and business model of the Tokyo city block, full of practical knowledge about how it came to be, how it works, where it may be going, and what we can learn from it.
★The authors are not only authoritative scholars but also creative storytellers who are well versed in thorough academic research, in visual presentation of graphic data, in rich and interesting street observations, and it also provides a concise and comprehensive knowledge history of "Tokyology" at the end of the book.

Tokyo is one of the most vibrant and livable cities on the planet, a megacity that somehow remains intimate and adaptive. Compared to Western metropolises like New York or Paris, however, few outsiders understand Tokyo's inner workings. For cities around the globe mired in crisis and seeking new models for the future, Tokyo's success at balancing between massive growth and local communal life poses a challenge: can we design other cities to emulate its best qualities?

Emergent Tokyo answers this question in the affirmative by delving into Tokyo's most distinctive urban spaces, from iconic neon nightlife to tranquil neighborhood backstreets. Tokyo at its best offers a new vision for a human-scale urban ecosystem, where ordinary residents can shape their own environment in ways large and small, and communities take on a life of their own beyond government master planning and corporate profit-seeking. As Tokyoites ourselves, we uncover how five key features of Tokyo's cityscape - yokochō alleyways, multi-tenant zakkyo buildings, undertrack infills, flowing ankyo streets, and dense low-rise neighborhoods - enable this 'emergent' urbanism, allowing the city to organize itself from the bottom up.

This book demystifies Tokyo's emergent urbanism for an international audience, explaining its origins, its place in today's Tokyo, and its role in the Tokyo of tomorrow. Visitors to Japan, architects, and urban policy practitioners alike will come away with a fresh understanding of the world's premier megacity - and a practical guide for how to bring Tokyo-style intimacy, adaptability, and spontaneity to other cities around the world.

Jorge Almazán is a Spanish architect based in Tokyo and an associate professor at Keio University. His office, Jorge Almazán Architects, is committed to environmentally responsible and socially inclusive projects spanning from interiors and architecture to urban and community design.

Joe McReynolds is an urban studies scholar affiliated with Keio University, where he studies Tokyo's approach to urban development and how public policy shapes its urban fabric and communities, particularly Tokyo's myriad subcultures.

Studiolab is a research and design unit led by Jorge Almazán at Keio University. Engaging students, researchers, and external collaborators, Studiolab combines rigorous academic research in the form of thesis and journal papers with real urban interventions and architectural projects.