Tokyo Public Space Networks at the Intersection of the Commercial and the Domestic Realms Study on Dividual Space

Abstract

In the metropolis of Eastern Asia a new category of space is unfolding: dividual space. Consisting of commercial settings that are publicly used as private domestic environments, prices are comparatively low enough to turn these spaces into an integral part of public life. This paper takes the city of Tokyo as a study field to document the emergence of dividual space and to identify its main spatial characteristics.

The Taiwanese love motel – An escape from leisure constraints?

“…The concept of the love motel was initiated in Japan, and is to be distinguished from a brothel (Caballero and Tsukamoto, 2006;Chaplin, 2007;Alexander et al, 2010). Their origins lie in the Edo Period (1600-1868) based on tea houses where accommodation and tea was served to couples before leaving them in private.…”

“…For their part Caballero and Tsukamoto (2006) describe how, in the period until the Second World War, Japanese couples would engage in love making in parks and bath houses, but from the 1930s the immediate predecessor of the modern love motel appeared, known as the enshuku that provided better furnished rooms that could be rented by the hour for one yen, and which were commonly used by couples. By the 1960s the modern love motel became part of the Japanese landscape (West, 2002(West, , 2005, and today it is estimated that the sector has a turnover of 4 trillion yen and 500 million annual visits (Chaplin, 2007).…”

A dynamic sense of home: Spatio-temporal aspects of mobility of young Tokyo residents

“…The city is explored as a spatial and institutional realm from the perspective of an individual. As a spatial realm, with the distribution of places that provide and embody homelike activities, the city provides spaces where individuals live, work, and socialize (Maki, 1979;Ashihara, 1983;Caballero & Tsukamoto, 2006;Maki & Mulligan, 2008). It connects these significant places through means of transportation, creating a network or a field of daily activities (Ikalovic & Chiesi, 2018).…”

“…On the architectural scale, during and after the Industrial Revolution (or the Meiji Revolution or Meiji Restoration) in Tokyo, traditional forms of living gradually transformed into medium-sized houses, rental houses, multifamily dwellings, and so on for what was to become the sal-aried middle class, which resided in various accommodations developed by corporations, agencies, and / or associations. [4] Moreover, because of time management, the synchronisation and coordination of activities in time and space, and distances, homelike activities were displaced and transposed from the private (living place) to the public realm (place of work) and socializing places (Oldenburg, 1989;Caballero & Tsukamoto, 2006) such as trains, convenience stores, noodle shops, public baths, coin laundries, love hotels, and so on. Therefore, talking about home in a spatial sense was not necessarily talking about the place of residence, which was used as storage or a bedroom (Ashihara, 1989;Yūko & Yokokawa, 1995).…”

Untitled

“…Mesto analizirata kot prostorsko in institucionalno okolje z vidika posameznika. Kot prostorsko okolje, v katerem so razporejeni kraji, ki omogočajo dejavnosti, pri izvajanju katerih se ljudje počutijo kot doma, mesto zagotavlja prostore, na katerih posamezniki živijo, delajo in se družijo (Maki, 1979;Ashihara, 1983;Caballero in Tsukamoto, 2006;Maki in Mulligan, 2008). Te pomembne kraje povezuje z različnimi načini prevoza, kar ustvarja mrežo ali preplet dnevnih dejavnosti (Ikalović in Chiesi, 2018).…”