Rapid technological, economic, social and cultural changes are transforming the idea of "Asian space." With the shift to a global economy and an urban population explosion, Asian cities have become a mainstay of progress, national pride, identity, and positioning on the global stage. The extraordinary pace and intensity of the changes have created a situation unique in the history of urban development. Despite the immense diversity of Asian countries, "Asia-ness" is often treated as a distinctive quality that has emerged from unique recent circumstances affecting Asian urbanizations as a whole. In Future Asian Space, 15 authors explore broad concepts relating to the creation and re-creation of "Asian space" and contemporary Asian identity, and their examination of different sites and research approaches highlights the difficulty of pinpointing what Asia-ness is, or might become. Appropriate design and planning of cities is a critical element in building a sustainable future and coping with environmental, social and cultural problems. Future Asian Space is designed to stimulate interests and engagement in discussions of the Asian city, and its trajectories in architecture and urbanism, but the authors' conclusions will intrigue anyone interested in the future of cities and urban life in Asia.

In 2050, Tokyo, now the largest metropolis in the world, will be the first megacity in human history that experiences rapid decrease of population, and vast deterioration of infrastructure, as well as other local cities in Japan. Ohno, a prominent urban theorist/ architect, challenges a new theory of urbanism for these shrinking cities in post-industrial era, by connecting ""fiber units"" of local communities in the city to re-design the cities' information, transportation, and industrial networks, as well as their landscapes.

Urban areas have been caught up in a turbulent process of transformation over the past 50 years and changes have been rapid, with issues such as mobility, nature, water management, energy use and public space featuring prominently._x000D_ In each Olympic year since 1988, the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology has held an international conference focusing on the connection between research and design, exploring the field of tension between science, technology and art._x000D_ This book presents the proceedings of the latest in this series of conferences: New Urban Configurations, held in Delft, the Netherlands, in October 2012 in collaboration with the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE) and the International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF). This edition of the conference discussed the role and critical potential of the architectural project in the transformation process of cities and territories that leads to new urban configurations._x000D_ The publication contains all 140 accepted papers and a selection of the keynote lectures presented at the conference. The papers have been grouped into five main themes: innovation in building typology; infrastructure and the city; complex urban projects; green spaces, and delta urbanism. Four of these major topics are further divided into several subtopics._x000D_ This book will be of interest to everyone involved in designing, building, thinking about as well as managing the urban landscape and territory.

Single-family houses are becoming increasingly outdated. They offer no response to demographic change or to the fact that there are fewer and fewer life-long relationships. They are often too inflexible for new family models or ways of cohabitation. This publication presents projects in recent years in Japan, which respond to the need for new forms of housing. The architects are developing solutions that allow residents to live together but still maintain enough distance and privacy. The presented apartment types and their layout allow for a variety of life models. Particularly interesting here is the use of spaces that provide a gradual transition from public to private space—an approach to building that, according to experts, could revolutionize western residential architecture. The publication portrays these new forms of building and living based on prominent Japanese examples that include Shigeru Ban, Sou Foujimoto, and Akihisa Hirata.

In Japan Restored, New York Times bestselling author Clyde Prestowitz envisions post-bubble Japan in the year 2050, when the country's economic prosperity will have made it a world leader in every area. In 1979, the book Japan as Number One: Lessons for America by Harvard University professor Ezra Vogel caused a sensation in the United States by pointing out that Japan was surpassing America as world economic leader; to this day, it remains the all-time bestselling non-fiction book by a Western author in Japan. The book was timely: Japan's subsequent "bubble era" of the 1980s saw the country booming. But since the economic bubble burst at the start of the 1990s, Japan has been in decline. Japan Restored takes up where Vogel left off. Written as a vision of Japan in the year 2050, Prestowitz looks back to the mid-2010s as such a low point for Japan that a special reform commission was set up that helped the country regain its former position as a leader in technology, in business, and geopolitically. Looking at education, innovation, the role of women, corporate organization, energy, infrastructure, domestic government, and international alliances, Prestowitz draws up a fascinating and controversial blueprint for the future success of Japan. In wake of the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo and the economic chaos caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Japan Restored is as timely as the 1979 book that inspired it.

In The Future of the Global Church, Patrick Johnstone, author of six editions of the phenomenal prayer guide, Operation World, draws on his fifty years experience to present a breathtaking, full-color graphical and textual overview of the past, present and possible future of the church around the world.

"I'm here to take you to live with your father. In Tokyo, Japan! Happy birthday!" In the Land of the Rising Sun, where high culture meets high kitsch, and fashion and technology are at the forefront of the First World's future, the foreign-born teen elite attend ICS -- the International Collegiate School of Tokyo. Their accents are fluid. Their homes are ridiculously posh. Their sports games often involve a (private) plane trip to another country. They miss school because of jet lag and visa issues. When they get in trouble, they seek diplomatic immunity. Enter foster-kid-out-of-water Elle Zoellner, who, on her sixteenth birthday, discovers that her long-lost father, Kenji Takahara, is actually a Japanese hotel mogul and wants her to come live with him. Um, yes, please! Elle jets off first class from Washington, DC, to Tokyo, which seems like a dream come true. Until she meets her enigmatic father, her way-too-fab aunt, and her hyper-critical grandmother, who seems to wish Elle didn't exist. In an effort to please her new family, Elle falls in with the Ex-Brats, a troop of uber-cool international kids who spend money like it's air. But when she starts to crush on a boy named Ryuu, who's frozen out by the Brats and despised by her new family, her already tenuous living situation just might implode. My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life is about learning what it is to be a family, and finding the inner strength to be yourself, even in the most extreme circumstances.

"The findings and recommendations of the report are solely the responsibility of the Centennial Group International"--Title page verso.

At a time when contemporary challenges seem to many to be insurmountable, this book offers an optimistic view of the future and provides a road map for societies to get there. Drawing upon extensive research and many years as a thought leader in environmental and sustainability issues in Japan and internationally, Hiroshi Komiyama analyzes the most pressing challenges to the attainment of sustainability of economically advanced nations and argues forcefully for Japan to lead them out of the present dilemma through active promotion of creative consumer and societal demand. He shows how an active industry–government–academic partnership can provide the environment needed to promote such new creative demand and illustrates its potential through presentation of a Platinum Society Network that was launched on a regional basis in Japan in 2010 to facilitate the solution of common issues through the exchange of information and ideas. What is perhaps most surprising about the text is its unwavering optimism supported by hard evidence, history, and insightful observation. Problems arising from new paradigms of the 21st century (what the author refers to as “exploding knowledge, limited Earth resources, and aging societies“) thwart sustainable development in advanced and developing countries alike. All countries will struggle with issues that evolve from these paradigms including diminishing resources, expanding budget deficits, and growing global environmental problems. This window on potential practical pathways and solutions should be of interest to all those engaged in seeking ways to meet these contemporary challenges.