Tokyo is one of the world’s largest cities, and it is also a vast, sprawling concrete jungle.
Largely destroyed during World War II, it was rapidly rebuilt with plenty of emphasis on function and very little attention paid to form.
Looking down on its jumble of rooftops, what you see is largely gray and grim.
Land prices are so astronomically high, developers fill up as much space as possible with high-rise buildings, which usually results in efficient living and office space but offers a decided lack of anything approaching charm.
Now that’s about to change.
Alarmed that the temperature in the city has risen almost 3 degrees in the last 100 years, creating a so-called “heat island” effect, Tokyo’s metropolitan government has decided that starting in April, new or reconstructed buildings will have to “go green.”
Gardens Required
Owners of new and reconstructed buildings, both public and private, will be required to submit plans for planting trees, flowers, and even lawns on their rooftops, according to the Asahi Evening News.
And it’s not just a move to beautify Tokyo. It’s also aimed at cleaning the air.
Tokyo architect Kenji Ichinomiya, who studied at the Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Institute in the United States, says the new regulations make excellent ecological sense.
“Buildings go up and up,” Ichinomiya told ABCNEWS.com, “but if we can make artificial ‘ground’ on the rooftops and cover them with plants, this will make a better environment for everyone. And new technology is so developed, we can now build rooftops that won’t leak.”
He said architects in some parts of the country had designed roof gardens, but in Tokyo, the idea of a “sky garden” with trees and plants was still a new thing.
Rooftops in Tokyo have often been used for other purposes. There are tennis courts, barbecue pits and beer gardens on building rooftops. Many department stores also use their roof space for garden shows.
Ichinomiya says there are sound ecological reasons for sky-gardening. Half the rainwater falling on Tokyo is now drained off and lost, but properly constructed, roof gardens can store rainwater in high-rise cisterns, which can be used later to water the plants.
Natural Insulation
Another benefit of high-rise gardens, Ichinomiya says, is that plants work as a kind of natural insulation, both heating and cooling, as well as reducing energy loads.
The idea of a greener, more environmentally friendly Tokyo seems likely to get support here. Government officials told the Asahi Evening News that when they asked the owners of 219 buildings to come up with preliminary tree-planting plans last summer, more than half were enthusiastic about adding green to their properties and so-called islands of calm to the community.
If owners absolutely can’t put plants on their roofs, they’re not entirely off the hook. The new regulations call for greenery in alternative spaces, if the roof can not be used.
The new Tokyo rules are the first in the country to require rooftop greenery, and that requirement has teeth. Property owners who don’t comply will be subject to fines of $2,000.
But in a country that has cherished its ground-level gardens for centuries, it may not take much time at all for the rooftops of Tokyo to go from concrete grim … to glorious green.