高層のとなりに、でかくて黄色の鳥がとまっています。ちょっと汚いでしょう。
Giant dirty yellow birds, perched next to a glass office tower
Corporations
Neon pink is a construction safety color
建設にネオンピンクは安全色でしょう。
Tokyo construction looks like an unstoppable weed
東京の建設は止められない雑草みたいです。
Above the new Shinjuku bus station.
Benchmark competitors’ user experience
Our clients have asked us to: Invite children to co-create the city of the future
Have you seen Shibuya station lately?
最近、渋谷駅に行きましたか。２０２７年まで工事が続くみたいです。
The old station has been demolished, and a cluster of new skyscrapers will rise. According to developer signs around the site, completion will be in 2027.
The gated and staffed entrance to Mitsubishi’s enormous old estate, above Shinagawa
三菱会社の昔の大名の家には、入り口に警備員がいます。もちろん、その日陰のところから中に入ってみたいです。
Of course, I want to go into this shady spot.
A riot of color in fresh flowers and balloons welcomes opening of convenience store
日本では、コンビニが新しく開くときに、花とバルーンで祝います。
In Nakano.
Nakano Central Park, on a warm evening
Launching Social Models, a design research studio in Tokyo & San Francisco
クライアントの依頼例：ベンダー・営業チームとのコミュニケーションを向上させてほしい。
Tokyo Green Spaceと平行して、私が関わっている仕事を紹介させてください。デザイン人類学者として、コンサルティングをしています。会社名は、SOCIAL MODELS「ソーシャル・モデルズ」。クライアントの多くが企業・大学・芸術機関です。最新のホームページを立ち上げました。東京とヨーロッパで活躍するデザイナー、ルイス・メンドにデザインしてもらいました。ホームページには、リサーチの視点が写真と一緒に紹介されています。是非、寄ってください！
As many of you know, my “day job” is as a design anthropologist working with corporations, universities, and arts organizations. Recently, I re-formed my thirteen year consulting company as Social Models. Thanks to the amazing designer, Tokyo resident Luis Mendo, the new site’s images combine my love of photography and offbeat urban stories to show how design research rests on close observation and makes new opportunities visible. I can’t thank Luis enough for his skills at helping me communicate my passion for research and design in Tokyo and San Francisco.
A city view without people
東京にはディストピアな場所もあります。例えば、このオペラシティーの前の交差点。よく自転車で通ります。
Often I bike under this maze of freeways, and sometimes I look up and see the Opera City tower rising 50 floors above. A city view without people and plants seems sad to me.
Perky and anorexic doll does not make hot-house strawberries appealing or natural looking
拒食症になったみたいなプラスチックの人形は、温室育ちのイチゴをおいしく見せません。ロボットがいちごを食べているみたいで、人間がいなくなった後の話みたいです。
Rika-chan, a Japanese Barbie, is promoting these fresh strawberries on the packaging. Seeing that image makes me wonder if there are any humans involved in the production or consumption of these winter “fruit products.”
Have you seen Shibuya Station recently? Seems to be demolition time, with a new mega-building in the making?
最近渋谷駅を見ましたか。今デパートとJRホームの構造を取り壊しています。手前で、新しいヒカリエという東急会社のビルが登場しましたが、どんな新しいショッピング・ターワーを作ろうとしているのでしょうか。東横線が今は地下に入ったので、もっと地上のスペースができたのでしょうか。
It seems the Tokyu department store above the station is being demo’d. I expect it will be another mega-shopping, “cultural” and office tower like the brand new Hikarie across the street. I wonder how it will be different and even “newer.”
Another rail change is the demolition of the elevated Toyoko line to Daikanyama, Nakameguro, and on to Yokohama, which has been replaced with the underground extension of the Fukutoshin subway line. Is there a plan on how to use this reclaimed public space?
Another view of back yard palms, with new luxury development in the distance
よく見てみると、５種類のヤシの木が見えます。サンフランシスコのような肌寒い気候でも、いろいろなヤシを育てられます。背景には、高級マンションが完成しました。
If you look carefully, you can see there are five different palm trees in this photograph.
San Francisco is often windy and cool. Despite the fact that palms thrive in many cool climates, somehow seeing them gives us the illusion of being somewhere warmer and exotic.
Beyond my garden, the old car dealership and repair shop have been torn down and replaced with luxury housing and a Whole Foods. The top floor apartments will rent for over $8,000 per month.
My interview about a new waterfront high-rise is now online and in many free real estate magazines distributed around Tokyo’s stations
最近、芝浦についての私のインタビューが出ました。この三井不動産のプロジェクトは、住宅と同時に公共の公園も作り、新い住人と今住んでいる住人とのコミュニティーを作ろうとしています。画期的な計画だと思います。緑と水は人をつなげられます。
In August, I began working with Mitsui Real Estate, Recruit, and a small NGO to introduce a new luxury high-rise residential tower in Shibaura, a less known waterfront area between Shinagawa and Hamamatsucho. It’s near where the base of Rainbow Bridge is located.
In this online interview (in Japanese) and in real estate brochures distributed around Tokyo, I relate my experience working in the neighborhood at Shibaura House, where I led gardening and fieldwork workshops for locals and international visitors, adults and small children.
The new tower, which is just now breaking ground, contributes to the restoration of Edo-era canals by creating a public waterfront park. This park contributes to the developer’s goal of creating a resilient community that includes new and existing residents. Providing greater access to the waterfront also restores a vital part of Tokyo’s history that was neglected in the 20th century.
