"It contains a message of hope to the world, that even in this divided global situation, we can come together to create a future together. So, diversity and unity, that is the message!"
"The structure creates a wind tunnel effect that makes the temperature cooler," Fujimoto explains, "and then also the rooftop is a viewing deck, from where you can see all the pavilions within the circle. It's looks like a small earth in front of you."
The Grand Ring was designed as a temporary installation, but its modular and dismantlable nature—using traditional Japanese nuki joints—allows for potential reuse and re-purposing, although its future remains unconfirmed.
Because of the clear but permeable border that the Grand Ring gives to the Expo, some have compared the site to a small, walled, medieval city. This is not accidental, but stems from Fujimoto’s desire to ensure that this Expo has a smaller footprint than past Expos, as well as the elements of his architectural philosophy.
Although deferential to the architects of previous Expos (Osaka 1970 and Nagoya 2005), he clearly believes the priorities are different today.
"The Master-plan for the 1970 Expo was done by Kenzo Tange. It was a realization of modern urban development ideas on a smaller scale, so it was like a model of the future city. But after that, at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, the scale and speed of new urban development got really crazy and fast, so the reality went well beyond the visions of the architects. This time we shrank the scale of the site, smaller than Osaka or Nagoya, or the last Expo in Dubai, to less than half. The question I asked myself was: ‘Is it possible to create architecture like a city, or it is possible to create the city as architecture from a more architectural or urban planning point of view?’ The Expo was like an attempt to think about something compact that could still be an urban experiences. So, finally, the circle is one."
"The circle of the Grand Ring is around two kilometers, while diameter-wise it is 670 meters, so that is the scale of a really compact city. The Grand Ring is also a significant part of the infrastructure, because it serves as a street and pathway, covered by a roof to shelter from sunlight and the rain. It is an experiment to create something between the scale of architecture and the scale of city planning, and this, I hope, could be one of the models to design the right kind of compactness for the city."
To those of us who have suffered under the heat of what was the hottest Summer on record in Japan, with temperatures often reaching towards and sometimes beyond the 40°C mark (104°F), it may seem that the fundamental problem of Japanese architecture is that our cities are simply too big and crowded, and that the solution may lie in diffusing the urban mass over a wider area, with much more in the way of parks and green belts.
One possible solution along these lines is the so-called "Linear City," where a city is designed as a long, narrow strip, along a transportation corridor, like a railway or highway. In Saudi Arabia, for example, plans are underway to build a 170-km-long linear city with no roads, using high-speed rail, and aiming for zero-carbon emissions and compact urban living. But according to Fujimoto, these solutions are imperfect because they require the creation of extensive and expensive (both financially and ecologically) infrastructure to connect up the various parts of the city.
"Reducing population densities is one of the possibilities, of course," he agrees. "Tokyo is too centralized, and then all the other Japanese cities are decreasing their populations, but on the other hand, the efficiencies of the energy consumption will be less if they are spread too much, and there are other problems like building and maintaining infrastructure. So, I think we need to find a good balance of the proper kind of compactness. If you can find a beautiful balance of density and compactness and openness that would be nice, but at least the current situation is too much out of balance and we need to find something different."
"In Tokyo the temperature is getting really, really high. If we can have more greens and soils, then I believe the temperature of the urban situation will be reduced, and not only that but it will also create a cooler atmosphere and more shaded areas as well. I imagine if we can make a city like Tokyo more like a forest, then that will be a better living environment. And then, of course, if we have many trees, then we’re going to have many hidden corners for individuals to stay in and relax. So my dream is to make an older kind city, like a forest, and not only in terms of increased greenery but a kind of architectural forest as well. So, mixtures of green forest and an architecture forest together!"
"The starting point was to think about how we can respect diverse individuals, but at the same time create nice interrelationships in order to create some kind of small community, but not forcing people to do the same things together; to create the beautiful coexistence of different individuals and different personalities in an architectural place."
"The Expo master plan with the Grand Ring is huge scale but it also represents how I try to create the diversity in unity."
The best way to get a clear idea of how of our future cities may look is to pay a visit to the high-rise Mori Art Museum, a monument to an earlier age of architecture, and visit the exhibition now on there dedicated to Fujimoto’s career.
So what does Fujimoto want visitors to take away from the exhibition?
"The basic message is that architecture is something interesting and fun, and architecture design is not something far from your daily life, but is always close. Also I want visitors to realize that architectural design can create a place for many different kinds of people and many different activities to stay together and sometimes be linked together. This is like a model of society, as well as architecture."
So, can Fujimoto’s architecture save Tokyo—and other Japanese and World cities—from the enormous threats and challenges they face in a world of radical climate change and geopolitical chaos?
We certainly hope so, because there are simply too many of us here to all leave at once!
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