Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World: Learning to Thrive Without Growth

Abstract

have some of the dangerous nostalgia that afflicts many. They ask, “Is Tokyo doomed to be overtaken by the charmless sterility of corporate-led urbanism?” (p. 6). To be clear, I personally love the same Tokyo urbanism as the authors and also dislike the towers-on-podium design, but as urban planners we should remind ourselves that time and again, people hate new buildings until one day the same buildings are treasured historic landmarks. I highly recommend Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City for planners, architects, and urban professionals and only hope more cities can learn from Tokyo’s urbanism. I think that for most cities in the world, especially those in the Americas, Tokyo offers a more attainable urban design template than European cities do, with all of the social and environmental benefits.