Wow! eBook
Learning from the Japanese City 2nd Edition
Author(s): Barrie Shelton (Author)
- Publisher: Routledge
- Publication Date: March 28, 2012
- Edition: 2nd
- Language: English
- Print length: 208 pages
- ISBN-10: 0415554403
- ISBN-13: 9780415554404
Book Description
Japanese cities are amongst the most intriguing and confounding anywhere. Their structures, patterns of building and broader visual characteristics defy conventional urban design theories, and the book explores why this is so. Like its cities, Japan’s written language is recognized as one of the most complicated, and the book is unique in revealing how the two are closely related. Set perceptively against a sweep of ideas drawn from history, geography, science, cultural and design theory, Learning from the Japanese City is a highly original exploration of contemporary urbanism that crosses disciplines, scales, time and space.
This is a thoroughly revised and much extended version of a book that drew extensive praise in its first edition. Most parts have stood the test of time and remain. A few are replaced or removed; about a hundred figures appear for the first time. Most important is an entirely new (sixth) section. This brings together many of the urban characteristics, otherwise encountered in fragments through the book, in one walkable district of what is arguably Japan’s most convenient metropolis, Nagoya.
The interplay between culture, built form and cities remains at the heart of this highly readable book, while a change in subtitle to Looking East in Urban Design reflects increased emphasis on real places and design implications.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“…I find this new edition to be riveting. The speculations and discussions [Shelton] began in the first edition have evolved and been broadened – this is, in effect, a new book. In a staggering display of scholarship he illuminates complex Japanese concepts of religion, landscape, urban design, archtitecture, spatial-definition, map making, writing systems, graphics….” –Journal of Asian Urbanism
“On behalf of all Japanese who are interested in cities and architecture, I must thank Barrie Shelton for his enormous contribution made on the study of Japanese cities. I am particularly impressed by his analysis of the Japanese street and sidewalk and…the morphological characteristics of the city, which none of us has hitherto explored so well.” – Fumihiko Maki
“…I find this new edition to be riveting. The speculations and discussions [Shelton] began in the first edition have evolved and been broadened – this is, in effect, a new book. In a staggering display of scholarship he illuminates complex Japanese concepts of religion, landscape, urban design, archtitecture, spatial-definition, map making, writing systems, graphics….” – Journal of Asian Urbanism
“…Learning from the Japanese City still represents the clearest articulation of the substance of Japanese urban form. I would strongly recommend it to anyone studying or travelling to Japan. I took my first edition with me when I went, and the trip was immeasurably more informed and fulfilling as a result.” – Built Environment
