On the erratic, ever-changing grounds of Tokyo-Bay, the recently completed Shinonome Canal Court Project seeks to re-define the identities of public housing and public space in Japan. The 16.4 hectares project - sited on the former grounds of Mitsubishi Steel Factory, marks the last step in a recent approach adopted by a number of large-scale projects. There, public space is utilized as a means to add amenity, achieve social objectives and enrich spatial experience, but also to increase retail turnover and marketability.

The pretentious project is located on a man-made island at the least celebrated part of Tokyo. It is a recent phase in the city’s constant growth through reclamation at its eastern borderline, and the steady management of Tokyo Bay since the late 17th century. History provides Shinonome with nothing more than ‘no-place-ness’: once - fishing grounds, and once - a passage to the neighboring Tokyo’s licensed quarter and its lighthearted atmosphere of plebeian Edo. Constant ordeals of tidal waves, floods, and heavy air raids at the end of World War II, left no emphatic imprint in the collective memory of Tokyos citizens. Even though Shinonome is only an hour walk from luxurious Ginza or the Imperial Palace, its historical background at the other side of the Sumida River overshadows with a myth of geographical inaccessibility.

Ever since the burst of the economic bubble and a subsequent depression, the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) - a gigantic governmental body and main provider of social housing in Japan, suffered from economic decline. Its main problem stemmed from increasing difficulties in finding occupants for its outmoded and sub-standard housing units in the uniform, large-scale housing estates.

Nonetheless, following these painful years of crisis, the public has demanded a more pluralistic and individualized environment to live and work in. The UDC has recognized this shift and dared to experiment in architectural solutions that would change the image of public housing fundamentally.

Initiated by the UDC, the Shinonome Canal Court project is divided into a closed mid-rise perimeter block, reserved for social housing - 6 blocks at a uniform building height of 14 stories, surrounded by conventional privately developed residential towers.

Following a design competition, six teams were appointed, including internationally known architects, such as Riken Yamamoto (Block 1), Toyo Ito (Block 2) and Kengo Kuma (Block 3). The others were Yama Architects (Block 4), ADH Architects (Block 5), and the team of Motokura, Keisuke, Yamamoto, and Keiji Hori (Block 6). To control the planning process and create a unified code of design, the six teams, headed by Yamamoto, met weekly.

The exotic vicinity of water, the unique topography and the measured isolation from the city allowed for architectural experimentation otherwise unobtainable in a swarming context of the metropolis.

The return of famous architects to the long-neglected field of public housing is reminiscent of the days of modernism, when architects had a social role. Shifted from the planning of exclusive brand shops and experimental projects to public housing, the Shinonome architects have assumed additional social obligations.

Commissioned for their brand value, architects names were the guarantee to successfully market the apartments. Indeed, situating architecture and public space as fancy commodities turned out to be a success, so that while other public housing projects were fighting to find inhabitants, each apartment in Shinonome had 24 applicants in average. Furthermore, the initial marketing phase of the project is indicative of this phenomenon - only 3 blocks (Ito, Yamamoto and Kuma) sufficed to fix Shinonome in the public mind.

A key generator of the public realm is an S-shaped street at the center of the perimeter block, along which basic shopping and community facilities are allocated. Located between two anchors - a mall and a local subway station, this pedestrian avenue offers a distinct spatial experience as one passes small, stage-like pocket parks and vistas on the nearby canal.

Throughout the entire project one can clearly sense the planners’ craving for community, for instigated communication and purposeful togetherness. The rapid urban growth of the last decades alongside with fundamental socio-demographic transformation has ushered in the dissolution of once vital communities. Conventional housing schemes, both public and private,  make little attempt to overcome the strong tendency of encapsulation between single housing units within a building, or between a building and its locality. Opposed to such dispositions, Shinonome tries to reformulate community in a contemporary way, and to re-relate alienated individuals.

Transparency within the buildings takes the endeavor above to further extremes. For instance, translucent entrances of apartments invite the public into the private domain as they allow a view into the ‘genkan’ - the doorway of the Japanese house. In Yamamoto’s block, even more aspects of the dweller’s life are exposed, as the building’s façade allows a full view of the apartments’ interiors. Nonetheless, the large number of concealed windows shows how idealistic architectural intentions can deviate from social realities, namely, the inhabitants’ basic desire for privacy.

Other means of re-enforcing social interaction are semi-private and public terraces reappearing as a recurring motif in each of the 6 blocks. They offer visual connections from the private realm to the common spaces, while facilitating communication among residents. However, a closer look at the actual use of these spaces shows, again, a discrepancy between architectural intention and their actual realization. Universally used notions of public behavior, such as neighbors talk over the balcony, do not necessarily match the spatial and social practices in Japan.

Undoubtedly, the Shinonome project enriches the spatial repertoire of Tokyo and serves as a sincere experiment. Yet, it entails a fissure between deeply rooted social values, and the architects’ endeavor to superimpose behavioral patterns.

The Cartesian declarations built up here fall short in their idealistic prescriptions. Within that split lies the potential and future of Shinonome.

* Erez Golani-Solomon is a PhD Candidate in Architecture and Urban Anthropology; Christian Dimmer is a PhD Candidate in Urban Design - both at the University of Tokyo.