KYOTO URBAN DESIGN 2015 2016

University of Oregon  and Myoshinji Temple

2016

University of Oregon Kyoto Urban Design program with Ron Lovinger, Daisuke Yoshimura, Satoko Motouji, Alan Waxman, and Amy Ueno,  focus on the informal settlement positioned within the toxic waste dump behind the Fushimi Inari Great Shrine in Kyoto.  Kyoto City Government called on the studio to investigate the site, speak to residents, and propose forward thinking solutions.  This extremely complex landscape is evidence of deeply intertwined systems of waste in the city of Kyoto writ into physical and social dynamics.  The site is positioned in the thick of the sacred Eastern Mountains of Kyoto, home to an astounding number of world heritage sites.  The project considers the paradoxical nature of the sacred/profane, and the unique position of residents most capable of transforming the toxic into the clean, and their potential for urban ecological remediation anywhere in the world. 

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2015

University of Oregon Kyoto Urban Design program with Ron Lovinger, Daisuke Yoshimura, and Alan Waxman focused on the redesign of the Kyoto Central Market and the Shimabara entertainment district in the very sacral chakra of the city.   Students studied traditional gardens in the parametric medium of watercolorwhile staying in the top Rinzai Zen monastery of Myoshinji, then adapted design concepts to contemporary urban problems by way of social engagement, mapping, landscape and urban design.