About the Author

Jorge Almazan is a Spanish architect based in Tokyo and an associate professor at Keio University. His office, Jorge Almazan Architects, is committed to environmentally responsible and socially inclusive projects spanning from interiors and architecture to urban and community design.

Studiolab is a research and design unit led by Jorge Almazan at Keio University. Engaging students, researchers and external collaborators, Studiolab combines rigorous academic research in the form of thesis and journal papers with real urban interventions and architectural projects.

Reviews

"Besides being a clearly articulated manifesto for those trying to preserve Tokyo's emergent properties, Emergent Tokyo helps distill lessons for other cities." --Urban Studies

"Here the authors bring us to a new way of understanding Tokyo, reading the metropolis much as we would a European city: a product of historical conditions, which can be highlighted, analyzed and replicated. And so, with the five patterns as guides, "Emergent Tokyo" is a detailed plan to reproduce and mimic the conditions for organic growth: the conditions for an emergent city." --The Japan Times
"..."Emergent Tokyo" is a must-read for city lovers who want to learn more about Tokyo. " --Discourse
"For Almazan, the lesson of these "emergent" Tokyo spaces isn't that architects and urban planners elsewhere can simply drop them down in the middle of their cities. Rather, it is that design professionals should allow healthy cities to develop in the directions toward which they are trending naturally, acting more like midwives than surgeons." --Architectural Record
"If you read one book about Japan this year, it should be the beautiful, new Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City by Jorge Almazan and his Studiolab colleagues, including Joe McReynolds. --Market Urbanism