MUTABLE STREETS: UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIO-MATERIAL PRODUCTION OF ALLEYWAYS IN JAPAN

Abstract

The alleyway in Japan is simultaneously quiet and vibrant, urban and architectural, public and private, formal and informal. It is an ambivalent urban street space which is both intriguing and difficult to grasp, as architect Kisho Kurokawa (2006, pp. 85- 86) calls it the "intermediate region" which holds all of these seemingly contradictory aspects together. In the past six decades, the existence of the alleyway has been shaken by the fast-paced developments of the 1950s to 1970s and the ongoing process of modernization. On the other hand, the growing interest in the preservation of the traditional streetscape and in the close knit-community which has formed around the alleyway over time has lead the practitioners and scholars in urban and architectural studies to direct their attention to this specific type of urban street space. Trapped between development and preservation, the alleyway goes through many small and large adjustments at different levels of space production on a daily basis. The alleyway thus offers a unique opportunity to study the relationship between social and material forces in the production of urban street spaces. Following an ANT (Actor-Network theory) approach, the dissertation argues that an analysis of this specific type of urban space can lead to a better understanding of the complexity of use, and the role of different actors involved in the process of adjustments and negotiations in planning, architecture and everyday use.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Albena Yaneva (Supervisor) & Isabelle Doucet (Supervisor)