Tokyo Mobility Project
1st International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2003

In preparation for the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2003 the Tokyo team (Hidetoshi Ohno, Joanne Jakovich, Tomohiko Amemiya, Koen Klinkers, Violetta Gejno) produced a series of 12 'diagraphics' which summarised mobility in Tokyo in a graphical format.

On Diagraphics.

Through this research process we found that we can use the12 diagraphics of Tokyo's railway to communicate the diversity of mobility in Tokyo to the international architecture audience. If read singularly, the parameters of a diagraphic can be read by anyone, since the graphic expression removes the need for numbers or words. If read as a series, or overlaid, these diagraphics support each other visually to create a graphical 'language' of Tokyo mobility.

According to this diagraphic method, 8 others cities also completed an analysis of mobility using similar parameters. The exhibition and symposium named 'World Avenue' offered a platform where this analysis was compared and discussed, with the courageous aim of creating a 'Mobility Manifesto'. To create such a document in 2 days of discussion was inarguably naive from the outset, yet the members from the 9 cities persevered.

World Avenue Symposium.

Above the disparity that emerged from cultural rifts and differing motivations, the lack of agreement on the definition and embodiment of mobility further fragmented the debate. Mexico City presented a tangible, massive proposal for vertical planning, named Transversal Urbanism; a type of car owners' mobility utopia for a city where ironically less than x% of people own a car. In contrast the Los Angeles team took a more intangible, no-action stance, claiming it would be most practical to make everyone stop moving than expand LA's already bursting highway system.

Historic burdens and a yearning for national character clouds Jakarta's mobility reality. 'Urban Acupuncture' describes a solution for relieving Jakarta's mobility stress. On a similar tone, a human fear of insignificance drove the research in the Ruhr region where a shrinking population demeans the quality of mobility. In the Pearl River Delta region the expansion of industry powered by human labor creates a map of labor mobility. Again, in Beirut human instinct for survival in the mobility jungle overrides any common logic.

While the car as a global object seemingly held the central link in most of these researches, there remained a significant gap between the conclusions of each city, signaling the creation of a single Mobility Manifesto to be impossible. Tokyo, the one team that broke the car-centered trend by analyzing the railway, perhaps offered the most valuable conclusion. The key to improved mobility, both in Tokyo and in any city, is diversity. According to Hidetoshi Ohno, mobility in Tokyo not only provies social, economic and environmental solutions to jammed highways and polution, but also provides a stage for Tokyoites to explore diverse styles of inhabiting the city.