JimmySeal wrote:
bebio wrote:
so many houses here would be illegal anywhere outside Japan.
I don't know what this has to do with creativity, but it sounds interesting. Can you give some examples?
After 2 months, I had completely forgotten about this thread. sorry.
I will answer also other's people's questions.
Japanese construction is for the most part quite earthquake-resistant (as long as they were built after 1982, which is when a new building code was implemented, being much more technically demanding than in the past (in the early 90's, the code was somewhat further improved). In the Kobe earthquake, most of the buildings built before 1982 collapsed. As for buildings made between 1982 and early 90's, about half of them suffered some damage, but none collapsed.
After the Kobe earthquake, the code was significantly improved. Yes, there is still a significant number of houses made before 1982 all over Japan which are really vulnerable. Some of them are being retrofitted, but there's still a long way to go. Nevertheless, in Tokyo there are many safe areas with well-built houses.
Now, back to the illegal stuff. It has to do with land property law.
For a full rundown, read Andre Sorensen, The Making of Urban Japan. It synthesizes some of the things I have heard from Japanese architecture professors here in Japan.
As a summary, since the Edo period it has fully asserted that the Bakufu rule over the people was not absolute, and even went through very fragile periods. During all this time, the urban space became insanely fragmented and unregulated (by private land lots), even as Tokyo was scorched by fire time and again. For several reasons, the bakufu regime failed in enforcing any serious rules towards reordering the city (it had no effective power to readjust private lands so as to improve roads, or install sewer infrastructure). By the time the Meiji period had ended, the private lot space was so fragmented, and the access roads to people's houses were so narrow that in a case of fire no one could do anything to help. The paradox is that the population also never became strong enough and sufficiently organized to voice their opinion (people's movements were squashed by the bakufu, and most people don't have any cultural memory of what it means to participate in a democratic process, and how to conduct protests).
Finally, the main construction laws and codes (different from building code!) have remained unchanged for several decades, due to political inertia: time and again, as soon as anyone tries to change a line of it, some damaged party finds a way to block the entire process.
Due to short space, these laws mandate a minimum of 50cm space between houses (in some cases 1m), and windows can be placed in walls of buildings facing each other, even if there is only 50cm between them. Also, even when the law tried to force roads to have a minimum of 4m width, it failed to be implemented, due to the resistance of several interest groups, as well as private land owners. Land plot size is so small and expensive, that Japanese houses have to be built on a very tight leash, with thin walls (downside: no acoustic insulation, you can hear everything your neighbors do or say, and poor thermal insulation, which has to be compensated by overusing the air conditioner) and poor living conditions. This means that for these houses and poorly located rooms, there is no sun exposure, there is poor air circulation, mold growth, accumulation of garbage or dirt, difficulty in installing infrastructure such as sewers, impossibility for fire trucks and ambulances to access most houses, urban chaos (post offices had a hard time navigating through the addresses to find a particular house, it is no small feat that they do it successfully by now, with the help of computer systems to catalog everything)...
living in Tokyo in the 60's and 70's was HELL. diseases abounded due to pollution caused by corrupt industries (as the legislation allowed them to stand close to housing areas) and poor air ventilation caused by awkward streets, and serious lack of sanitary infrastructure. Many people died, and it was the beginning of of the first protest movements. The companies spent years incriminating the victims, saying it was all their fault for becoming sick. it took decades until the courts sided with the victims, and the industries began to clean up their facilities.
The Tokyo olympics in the 60's and later, in the late 80's and 90's saw the first successful attempts to improve urban standards. In the late 90's, the notion of machizukuri was established, where neighboring communities create groups that work together with town halls and construction companies towards improving roads and houses, and creating a better urban design. there were many failures with machizukuri, but after these stumbles the movement seems to be maturing, and producing good results. you can find websites for machizukuri groups in Shibuya, kita-ku, setagaya-ku, etc.
For a summary of Shibuya's evolution, I wrote a small report for one of my lectures:
http://www.archive.org/stream/ReportsAb … 0/mode/2up
I have other reports, but they are kinda crappy (done in a short time just to get credits).
Last edited by bebio (2012 February 10, 4:43 am)
I was just trying to answer the question 'what kind of learning is there other than rote learning?' with examples that should remind people of teaching styles they've seen. Your example is certainly a better example of how to use that style of teaching in a math class if you actually wanted to do so.