“FIGHTS AND FIRES ARE THE FLOWERS OF EDO“
TOKYO IN TRANSITION

It has been common in post –enlightenment Western society to view binary pairs as oppositional in nature. I wish to interrogate how the ”narratives” of our society determine our evaluation and response to disaster and events that create disorder in our lives. What is the role of design when cities are re-built and re-constructed after “disaster”, natural and man- made, has altered the material and physical “face” of the urban environment? By altering our relationship to binary pairs as oppositional can we transform the design and inhabitation of an environment that is increasingly perceived, particularly by Western thought, as alienating, hostile and sterile? Furthermore, is this perceptual shift conducive to resilience in the face of environmental and technological change as well as in situations where perceived order has broken down?

The locus of my research is Tokyo and how it has transitioned from the Edo of the Tokugawa Regime 1600-1863,a city with a built materiality of wood and paper, to contemporary Tokyo a city of concrete and glass. This will be illustrated by the way in which the various “mappings” of the urban environment are a visual expression of the metaphysics underpinning urban planning and design. “Fights and Fires are the Flowers of Edo” is an expression that was popular during the Togugawa Regime. It was a time of constant conflagration and upheaval as the result of repeated earthquakes. This has more recently included flooding and firebombing. However this upheaval always preceded a resurgence of life. The term is indicative of the process of renewal and creation as an integral part of destruction. This paper specifically examines the way in which narratives, written oral and visual determine our relationship to binaries and the way in which they provide the conceptual framework for design and urban planning. It will also interrogate whether these narratives of resilience have permeated the new materiality of concrete and glass and the consequences this has for design and urban planning.

The theoretical perspectives that this paper calls on are the interface of science and metaphysics and the importance of the Poetics of Space as significant for meaningful inhabitation within the Built Environment. The organizing principle of these multi disciplinary approaches will be the process of Narrative Inquiry examining the role myths, cosmologies, maps and metaphysics of Japanese Culture play in the design and re-construction of the Urban Environment.