Tokyo is a chaotic city, in the sense that it did not develop from city-wide coordinated urban planning. By the 18th century, it already had around 1 million inhabitants, with most of the population living in conditions similar to modern Brazilian favelas. Tokyo's dense suburbs resemble Brazilian peripheries, with low-rise but closely packed buildings on narrow plots and a wide variety of uses. Furthermore, Tokyo features a multiplicity of architectural typologies, different modes of transportation sharing the same space, and—not unlike Brazilian cities—billboards and exposed overhead wires clashing with the urban landscape.
Nonetheless, Tokyo boasts exceptional urbanism, proving that achieving high-quality urban environments does not require visual uniformity or rigid zoning regulations—provided other factors that foster urban vitality and diversity are enabled. With this in mind, we examine what we can learn from the world's largest city to inspire our own cities to become more accessible, human-centric, dynamic, and sustainably diverse.
