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List of contents
Introduction
The Structure of the Base of Life
(Kenchikugaku kenkyū [Research on architecture]1942, reprinted and commented 1968)
An Essay on the National Structure
(Shin Kenchiku, June 1946, reprinted and commented 1968)
Mountain Cities
(Shin Kenchiku, June 1946, reprinted and commented 1968)
地域空間論 [Chiiki Kūkan Ron]
西山夘三 [Nishiyama Uzō]
第１章生活基地の構造 [Dai 1-shō Seikatsu kichi no koozoo]
第9章国土構成のー試論 [Dai 9-shō Kokudo kōsei no shiron]
第10章 山岳都市 [Dai 10-shō Sangaku toshi]
About the author
Carola Hein is Professor and Head, Chair History of Architecture and Urban Planning, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
Summary
Nishiyama Uzō, educated as an architect between 1930 and 1933, was a key figure in Japanese urban planning. He was a prolific writer who influenced a whole generation of Japanese urban planners and his interpretations of foreign planning and local practice still influence Japanese planning theory and practice today.
Nishiyama’s first publications date to the 1930s, and his last ones appeared in the 1990s, spanning a period of enormous political and spatial changes. The three articles translated here, originally published in the 1940s in professional magazines, show how Nishiyama developed his theoretical models based on a social approach to architecture and planning, focusing on land use and land control rather than aesthetic preferences. They provide insight into Nishiyama’s early thinking, his analysis of foreign examples, his reflection on large-scale regional and national spatial organization, and his architectural and urban visions, providing a remarkable and fascinating insight into the state of planning in Japan.
These texts call scholarly attention to the writing of a global planning history and invite the reader to engage with a major figure in planning who is largely unknown outside Japan; to reconsider Japanese planning history; and to work towards a truly global planning history. How does Nishiyama compare to the great urban planners of the past in the West, such as Patrick Geddes, Lewis Mumford, or Werner Hegemann? Many more translations will be necessary to answer this question.
Additional text
"Carola Hein shines a light on the previously little known work of one of Japan’s major planners, Nishiyama Uzō, thus giving an extremely valuable insight into the kind of thinking that helped mould Japanese city planning during a crucial period. Carola’s unique knowledge and understanding of global planning history combine with her formidable linguistic abilities to make her the only person who could have performed this service."
Stephen Ward, Professor of Planning History, Oxford Brookes University, UK.
"Carola Hein introduces us to a leading figure of Japanese urban planning, unknown outside Japan: the architect-planner, historian-theorist, Nishiyama Uzō. Nishiyama’s articles translated here, form the core of the book and attest to the transnational and cross-cultural exchanges (between Japan, Europe, the United-States) that fed his theories. Carola Hein’s introduction allows us to discover Nishiyama’s influence on Japanese urban planners and architects as well as on the planning of the post-World War II Japanese city. She opens new perspectives on a central character whose theories should be known today, echoing current debates on the city."
Catherine Maumi, School of Architecture (ENSAG), Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France
"With this volume Professor Hein makes a major contribution to global planning scholarship by bringing Nishiyama Uzo’s work to a wider audience. Nishiyama was a quintessentially humanist and idealistic mid-20th century planner, actively engaged in the transnational flow of global ideas about sprawl, megacities, urban form, and neighbourhood units based on primary schools. Yet he was also a highly original thinker who creatively advanced his own solutions to the challenges of 20th century urban industrialization, with a range of contributions to understanding housing issues, national and regional settlement patterns, high-density living, and the challenges of mobility and congestion in modern cities. Beautifully presented with dozens of Nishiyama’s drawings and diagrams, Hein’s introduction nicely introduces Nishiyama and his place in Japanese urban thought."
André Sorensen, Professor of Urban Geography, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada
