Surface Traces: Tokyo’s Forgotten Rivers

Abstract

The disappearance of the Shibuya River and water sources that were once vital to Tokyo have led to an introverted water culture. Despite recent picturesque efforts to reveal fragments of the Shibuya River through large-scale developments, water remains an elusive part of the city. Still, remnants of the lost river linger as urban ghosts, evoking episodic experiences of its absence within the built environment. In today’s dense urban fabric where the continuity of the river is neither possible nor productive, what are alternative methods of recollecting water’s significance? The thesis proposes a series of mnemonics – a fountain, botanical garden, and bathhouse – as urban elements to spatialize and reimagine the forgotten role of water through soundscapes and collectivity. Different modalities of addition, modification, and new construction envision the transformation of a locality. These interventions, scaling between artifact, architecture, and urban, posit the thesis’s bottom-up approach across Tokyo to unveil the city’s Anthropocene.