It’s hashtag#FridayBookReview time again and I have amazing book to cover. “Emergent Tokyo: Designing The Spontaneous City” has been on my radar after a few great reviews I read and I can only join in praising this book.

The authors take a new approach in explaining what makes Tokyo a unique city staying away from Orientalistic exotic explanations (“chaotic Japan” etc.) and showing how communities and towns in other parts of the world can learn from it and adopt some of the similar practices. This is my favorite genre if not philosophy of life—explaining and preserving the differences and unique points while also not gatekeeping them to just one set of circumstances (usually brushed off as “cultural” or even “ethnic”) and hence making them possible to use, enjoy and learn from for broader audiences.

In the case of Tokyo, the authors primarily use the concept of spontaneous order that comes from within the communities or localities with the support and help of institutions. That was the way so many parts of Tokyo became the way we know them—each possessing their own character and above all having a very human-scale design and feel to them. The authors take a few well-known areas such as Golden Gai or Ameyokocho market in Ueno to show how this happened and also highlight how the same logic can be applied to low-rise and high-dense suburbs of the city or even the phenomenon of Zakkyo buildings (“iconic buildings that no one talks about”).

In just few paragraphs they explain phenomena that many authors takes dozens of pages to do (while frequently not arriving at any sensible conclusion). I hope it is fine with authors if I use just two pages from the book to illustrate this with an example of eternal question “Why streets in Japan do not have benches or outside cafe sittings”. Demystifying Tokyo can help in explaining so much about it and the way people move in, work, consume and enjoy life in this city.

Quite short and easy to read with many detailed and very informative illustrations (many based on some sophisticated data analysis!), recommend for anyone who ever lived in Tokyo or interested in learning more about this great big city.

*Originally published on LinkedIn here *