Reflections on Urban, Regional and National Space

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"Carola Hein shines a light on the previously little known work of one of Japan's major planners, Nishiyama Uzo, thus giving an extremely valuable insight into the kind of thinking that helped mould Japanese city planning during a crucial period. Carola's unique knowledge and understanding of global planning history combine with her formidable linguistic abilities to make her the only person who could have performed this service."

Stephen Ward, Professor of Planning History, Oxford Brookes University, UK.

"Carola Hein introduces us to a leading figure of Japanese urban planning, unknown outside Japan: the architect-planner, historian-theorist, Nishiyama Uzo. Nishiyama's articles translated here, form the core of the book and attest to the transnational and cross-cultural exchanges (between Japan, Europe, the United-States) that fed his theories. Carola Hein's introduction allows us to discover Nishiyama's influence on Japanese urban planners and architects as well as on the planning of the post-World War II Japanese city. She opens new perspectives on a central character whose theories should be known today, echoing current debates on the city."

Catherine Maumi, School of Architecture (ENSAG), Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France

"With this volume Professor Hein makes a major contribution to global planning scholarship by bringing Nishiyama Uzo's work to a wider audience. Nishiyama was a quintessentially humanist and idealistic mid-20th century planner, actively engaged in the transnational flow of global ideas about sprawl, megacities, urban form, and neighbourhood units based on primary schools. Yet he was also a highly original thinker who creatively advanced his own solutions to the challenges of 20th century urban industrialization, with a range of contributions to understanding housing issues, national and regional settlement patterns, high-density living, and the challenges of mobility and congestion in modern cities. Beautifully presented with dozens of Nishiyama's drawings and diagrams, Hein's introduction nicely introduces Nishiyama and his place in Japanese urban thought."

Andre Sorensen, Professor of Urban Geography, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada