Design Of Urban Open Spaces Research Articles

Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation

Children, Youth and Environments. Vol 14, No.1 (2004) ISSN 1546-2250 Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation Isami Kinoshita Faculty of Horticulture Chiba University, Japan Citation: Kinoshita, Isami. (2004). “Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation.” Children, Youth and Environments 14(1). This book was published after the cross cultural collaboration of professionals in the UK and Japan concerning children’s involvement in environmental education and community design. This collaboration started from the meeting Eileen Adams and Reiko Ogiwara at a conference in Venice in 1994. At the conference, Reiko presented the projects in which my colleagues and I had been engaging in the Taishido neighborhood in Tokyo: making the play maps of three generations1 . We had been encouraged by the British urban study movement, and organized a new group, “Machi Work,” from professionals of different fields, especially from environmental design and education. As you may know, the name “Machi Work” was influenced by the enthusiastic British urban study activities called “Street Work” conducted by Colin Ward. The first project of Machi Work was to invite Eileen to work with us. Fortunately, I was the first person whom Eileen met when she landed at the Narita Airport. (But that was not the reason why I became the co-editor of this book.) While we talked on the train from the airport to Tokyo, we found we were in a small world by the fact that we both knew Roger (Hart) well. Eileen’s lectures in Tokyo and Yokohama were successful and she encouraged us to extend the activities of Machi Work. The British Council and the Sasakawa Foundation had been supporting our cross-cultural study. A number of Japanese members of “Machi Work” took part in a UK study tour 373 arranged by Eileen, and in turn the other professionals of the Built Environmental Education in the UK visited and lectured in Japan. Through these cross-cultural interactive communications, Eileen got an idea and proposed that we make a book to share both experiences and information. We agreed with her idea and I began engaging as a coordinator to find a publisher, get support from The British Council and Sasakawa Foundation, and begin editing the Japanese papers. The most difficult editing work for me was the coordination of the Japanese authors. Japanese like to write about concrete cases because we prefer to form our own rationale by reading between the lines which describe real cases rather than read abstract theory. Thus, some of the Japanese authors who were supposed to be presenting theory had instead written narrative text introducing concrete cases. As a consequence, Eileen had to work hard to rewrite several texts and mix them together. For the Japanese text, we translated her English text and arranged it for Japanese readers to understand more easily by attaching concrete information. This is the reason why Hart’s Ladder of Participation appears only on the Japanese page, a fact noted by the reviewer. The editing work was difficult and brought many conflicts, but it enabled us to gain the most important product of this cultural exchange: to learn the different cultural contexts by encouraging both activities to go forward in the same direction. After the publication of Machi-Work, the network of the children’s participation movement has been further expanded in Japan by the publication of Roger Hart’s influential Children’s Participation in Japanese. For instance, Roger’s book encouraged a new organization in Nara by to engage in children’s participation, and last year they invited Eileen to visit. The world might be small but this network clearly can be expanded. Endnotes 1. See Isami Kinoshita and Taishido Study Group (1984/85). 374 “Three Generations of Play in Taishido.” Children’s Environments Quarterly 1(4):19-28. Isami Kinoshita received his Doctor of Engineering (Architecture) degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Chiba University. His research interests include community design with children's participation, children's play environment and urban open space design. His recent publications include Ecology of Play and Machi (urban neighborhood environment) published by Maruzen, 1996...

Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation

Children, Youth and Environments. Vol 14, No.1 (2004) ISSN 1546-2250 Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation Isami Kinoshita Faculty of Horticulture Chiba University, Japan Citation: Kinoshita, Isami. (2004). “Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation.” Children, Youth and Environments 14(1). This book was published after the cross cultural collaboration of professionals in the UK and Japan concerning children’s involvement in environmental education and community design. This collaboration started from the meeting Eileen Adams and Reiko Ogiwara at a conference in Venice in 1994. At the conference, Reiko presented the projects in which my colleagues and I had been engaging in the Taishido neighborhood in Tokyo: making the play maps of three generations1 . We had been encouraged by the British urban study movement, and organized a new group, “Machi Work,” from professionals of different fields, especially from environmental design and education. As you may know, the name “Machi Work” was influenced by the enthusiastic British urban study activities called “Street Work” conducted by Colin Ward. The first project of Machi Work was to invite Eileen to work with us. Fortunately, I was the first person whom Eileen met when she landed at the Narita Airport. (But that was not the reason why I became the co-editor of this book.) While we talked on the train from the airport to Tokyo, we found we were in a small world by the fact that we both knew Roger (Hart) well. Eileen’s lectures in Tokyo and Yokohama were successful and she encouraged us to extend the activities of Machi Work. The British Council and the Sasakawa Foundation had been supporting our cross-cultural study. A number of Japanese members of “Machi Work” took part in a UK study tour arranged by Eileen, and in turn the other professionals of the Built Environmental Education in the 297 UK visited and lectured in Japan. Through these cross-cultural interactive communications, Eileen got an idea and proposed that we make a book to share both experiences and information. We agreed with her idea and I began engaging as a coordinator to find a publisher, get support from The British Council and Sasakawa Foundation, and begin editing the Japanese papers. The most difficult editing work for me was the coordination of the Japanese authors. Japanese like to write about concrete cases because we prefer to form our own rationale by reading between the lines which describe real cases rather than read abstract theory. Thus, some of the Japanese authors who were supposed to be presenting theory had instead written narrative text introducing concrete cases. As a consequence, Eileen had to work hard to rewrite several texts and mix them together. For the Japanese text, we translated her English text and arranged it for Japanese readers to understand more easily by attaching concrete information. This is the reason why Hart’s Ladder of Participation appears only on the Japanese page, a fact noted by the reviewer. The editing work was difficult and brought many conflicts, but it enabled us to gain the most important product of this cultural exchange: to learn the different cultural contexts by encouraging both activities to go forward in the same direction. After the publication of Machi-Work, the network of the children’s participation movement has been further expanded in Japan by the publication of Roger Hart’s influential Children’s Participation in Japanese. For instance, Roger’s book encouraged a new organization in Nara by to engage in children’s participation, and last year they invited Eileen to visit. The world might be small but this network clearly can be expanded. Endnotes 1. See Isami Kinoshita and Taishido Study Group (1984/85). “Three Generations of Play in Taishido.” Children’s Environments Quarterly 1(4):19-28. Isami Kinoshita received his Doctor of Engineering (Architecture) degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is currently an 298 Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Chiba University. His research interests include community design with children's participation, children's play environment and urban open space design. His recent publications include Ecology of Play and Machi (urban neighborhood environment) published by Maruzen, 1996...

An analysis of attributes affecting urban open space design and their environmental implications

This paper analyses the factors influencing the design of urban open space from the users’ perspective. A questionnaire survey has been carried out in Hong Kong to identify the importance of each design attribute with the aid of the analytic hierarchy process. The results show that microclimate is the most important criteria. Planting and sunlight rank the highest in the sub‐criteria indicating that natural environment is the most treasured by the users of urban open spaces. Accessibility is also one of the important criteria. Hard landscape, on the contrary, ranks the least. The findings imply that urban open space cannot be considered in isolation, but an urban integration approach is required.