Posts Tagged ‘Imperial Palace’
28
Sep
Posted by palmsundae in Community, Global cities, Governments, Walking and transit, small streets, trees. Tagged: Akihabara, bike, borrowing, ciclovia, free, Ginza, Haneda, heaven, hokousha tengoku, Imperial Palace, Jane Martin, Oifuto, park, pedestrian, Plant*SF, public space, San Francisco, SF Streets Blog, Shinjuku, street, Sunday Streets, usable, 歩行者天国. Leave a Comment
For mature cities, creating green cities involves reclaiming unused and under-used spaces in crowded environments. For Tokyo, that largely means rooftops, walls and streets.
Japan introduced a successful concept called “pedestrian heaven” or hokousha tengoku (歩行者天国) in commercial districts including Ginza and Shinjuku. On weekends and holidays, small stretches of major roads are pedestrian-only. A similar [...]
Continue reading »
17
Aug
Posted by palmsundae in Corporations, Residences, heat island effect, small business. Tagged: air conditioning, Aoyama, beverage, design, exterior, girl, home, hydroponic, Imperial Palace, indoor, mall, office, pump, roof, showroom, Suntory Midorie, timer, vertical, wall. 4 Comments
Recently I visited Suntory Midorie’s showroom in Aoyama. The entrance vertical green wall with their company name was most impressive in terms of plant diversity and aesthetics. There are also about ten other designs showing the variety of looks they can create with wood frames and internal pump and watering system.
Suntory Midorie has created these [...]
Continue reading »
6
Aug
Posted by palmsundae in Community, Urban food, Visionary, small business, trees. Tagged: age, bee, beekeeper, deforestation, Edible, 銀座ミツバチプロジェクト, farmers, fear, flower, Ginza, Ginza Honey Bee Project, grass, Hamarikyu, hive, honey, honeycomb, Imperial Palace, kids, landscape, mama-san, office, pesticide, rice, roof, rooftop, sake, souvenir, Tsukudajima, World War II. 7 Comments
Last week the Ginza Honey Bee Project (銀座ミツバチプロジェクト) founders Takayasu Kazuo (高安和夫) and Tanaka Atsuo (田中淳夫) talked with me about their successful four year old honey-making project in the middle of Ginza, and showed me their rooftop hives.
We met in a unremarkable conference room in a nondescript office building behind Matsuya department store. A group [...]
Continue reading »
21
May
Posted by palmsundae in Visionary. Tagged: 5bai Midori, Acros Fukuoka, bench, biodiversity, construction, 田瀬理夫, 里山, Fukushima, grass-covered, grasses, hawks, high-rises, Imperial Palace, intermediate, narrow path, native plants, nature, plant regions, psychological, real estate, satoyama, shrubs, species, Tase Michio, ticks, Tokuji, tray, trees. 1 Comment
This week I had the amazing opportunity to meet one of my landscape design heroes, Tase Michio (田瀬理夫) of Plamtago. He has created urban architecture and a green business that bring native plants and habitats to urban areas. His most famous work is the 1995 Acros Fukuoka building, a 15 story lush hillside on top [...]
Continue reading »
19
May
Posted by palmsundae in trees. Tagged: Budo-kan, central Tokyo, cherry blossom, Chidorigafuchi, chiyoda, hanami, Imperial Palace, moat, nature, row boat, spring, 千鳥が縁. Leave a Comment
In the center of Tokyo, it is possible to be on a row boat and feel removed from the built environment. This is Chidorigafuchi moat near legendary concert hall Budo-kan, on the northwest side of the Imperial Palace. Chidorigafuchi is very famous for cherry blossom viewing (hanami), and practically deserted on this beautiful spring day.
Continue reading »
17
May
Posted by palmsundae in Corporations. Tagged: breezes, cooling, district, green roofs, greening, heat island effect, heating, hot water, Imperial Palace, Marunouchi, Mitsubishi Estates, Otemachi, permeable, roadways, sidewalk, sprinklers, street trees, Tokyo Bay, vertical gardens, Yurakucho. Leave a Comment
Mitsubishi Estates, one of Japan’s largest real estate companies, has created a comprehensive plan for the downtown business district of Otemachi-Marunouchi-Yurakucho, where it owns one third of the land.
Mitsubishi Estates’ size and ecological principles lead the company to think beyond the scale of individual buildings. District heating, cooling and hot water systems provide energy efficiency [...]
Continue reading »
11
Apr
Posted by palmsundae in Residences. Tagged: blue tarps, capture, cellphone, cherry blossom, co-workers, drinking, eating, Enbutsu Sumiko, family, flower, Flower Lover's Guide to Tokyo, friends, Good Day Books, hanami, human, Imperial Palace, keitai, keitai photo, kerria, neighbors, outdoors, power, recklessness, sakura, salary man, socialize, spring, walks, yamabuki. 2 Comments
Spring in Tokyo reminds you of the power that flowers have to capture human imagination. Cherry blossom viewing, which has its own name in Japanese, hanami (花見), draws people to socialize outdoors, drinking and eating on blue tarps with family, friends, co-workers and neighbors.
The power of cherry blossoms (or sakura, 桜) even inspires acts of seeming [...]
Continue reading »
Recent Comments