Thirty years after the original Japanese edition by Fumihiko Maki and a team from Maki and Associates, an English-language version of this book is finally available.

The original was based on a commissioned study on “The Desirable Living Environment” and examined Japanese urban spaces in the context of Tokyo’s rapid change and the city’s distinctive aesthetic consciousness. In particular, the concern for surface layers, micro-topographies, and small spaces in the metropolis received special focus. With the ever-growing and new global metropolises emerging today, fundamentally different attitudes toward public domains are revealed. It is clear that old ideas no longer apply.

Thirty years after the original Japanese edition by Fumihiko Maki and a team from Maki and Associates, an English-language version of this book is finally available.

The original was based on a commissioned study on “The Desirable Living Environment” and examined Japanese urban spaces in the context of Tokyo’s rapid change and the city’s distinctive aesthetic consciousness. In particular, the concern for surface layers, micro-topographies, and small spaces in the metropolis received special focus. With the ever-growing and new global metropolises emerging today, fundamentally different attitudes toward public domains are revealed. It is clear that old ideas no longer apply.