Underutilised-Overbuilt Re-reading the Urban Underground of Nishi-Shinjuku

Arfakhashad Munaim discusses the plazas and underground corridors of one of Tokyo’s busiest transit hubs as both a social space and a mega-urban infrastructure

- Arfakhashad Munaim

Tokyo is a landscape of striking complexity and colour. Upon arrival, we see a carnival of neon signs and unfamiliar symbols. Shibuya, Kabuki-cho, Akihabara and Roppongi are the names of places with an abundance of skyscrapers, subways, shopping arcades and pedestrian pathways. Throughout the day and night, these areas overflow with human activity. At all levels of the built environment – underground, street-level and high-rise – there is a pulsing, vital movement.

Nishi-Shinjuku, a subsection of the Shinjuku ward in Tokyo, Japan, stands out for its impressive verticality paired with surprising sterility. Its skyscrapers are visually stunning from afar and among the tallest of the high-rise buildings in Japan. But up-close at street level the area is a desert of asphalt, glass and steel, parceled and planned for offices, universities and hotels, with pedestrian movement and retail activity diverted to underground corridors.

The more than 180,000 people who work in Nishi-Shinjuku are isolated in massive high-rise buildings during the day and abandon the area in the evening. Outside peak commuting and lunch times, extensive underground corridors and their retail and restaurant spaces are sparsely used or entirely vacant. The discrepancy between the availability of space and its degree of use results in an ‘underutilised-overbuilt’ condition. This condition is not the inevitable result of planning efforts. It occurs when efficiencies in economics and transportation trump concerns for how people could experience and live in a city. In this article, we explore how this condition was created in Nishi-Shinjuku while proposing alternative modes of urban development.

The Development of Nishi-Shinjuku