The space age futurism and scale of this development is extraordinary and overwhelming. The basic objectives of the development in creating a unique urban subcentre on the waterfront are admirable, but the quest for uniqueness always involves risk and the success or not of this project in terms of humanness appears to be the major question to be answered.
2.3 Minato Mirai 21
While this project is also extraordinary in its scale, its more traditional, though still very modern architecture, its integration with existing business and commercial districts and a more accessible park and green network gives it a better feel of human scale than the Tokyo Teleport projecis.
2.4 Takahama Mosaic
This appears a successful development, the children's playground area is a delight. Pedestrian access to Mosaic is very difficult.
2.5 Meriken Park
Combining passenger ship/ferry terminl facilities with convention/hotel entertainment has a record of success, e.g. Vancouver, Canada. A similar combination is currently under consideration on port facilities to the north of tile Darling Harbour Development Area.
2.6 Hokkaido
The conversion of warehouse buildings in Sapporo, Otaru and Hakodate is an excellent example of the diversity of Japanese culture, that is history versus modernity.
The Sapporo Factory was particularly impressive in its mix of food/retail/ entertainment and innovative incorporation of historical features. It, of course, has to cope with severe climatic factors and these must affect the economic viability of such a project. Its location is slightly remote but the product it has to offer should be strong enough to overcome this factor.
The Otaru warehouse buildings have, on the whole, adopted single purpose land uses, e.g. glass products, cuckoo clocks. If their product is strong enough, they will survive financially. The town itself has much charm and obviously has a strong tourism base.
