Machizukuri and Our Activities in Tomo

Urban Design Lab. at the University of Tokyo

General Information1Location

L ocation

Toky oK y oto
H irosh im aTOMOF u k u y am a C ity
F u k u y am a statio ncen tral area

TOMO locates at Fukuyama city, Hiroshima pref.

T O M O (鞆)

01k m

2km

History of TOMO

Tomo has flourished as a port town
-from the 1500s to the late 1900s
Drawing of TOMO at the EDO era（1603～1868）

2Historical property left in TOMO
１.GANGI

２.HATO

Stairs for easy access to sea
４.TADEBAMaintenance yard for ship

３.JOUYATO

Traditional lighthouse

Breakwater

５.FUNABANSHO

Administrative office of harbor in past timeTownscapes
The historical city-center

Streetscapes3Landscapes

View from the Ioji-temple
Sensui-jima island

View from the sea
Tomo was selected to be in “List of
100 Most Endangered Sites” heldby World Monument Fund in 2002.

Situations

4

Traffic problem

Depopulation & Vacant houses

Today, Tomo’s historical area has
a lot of vacant houses

18000

5500

Historical area
Vacant houses
Parking lots

Demography of Tomo5

Movements

FlowCity1983

1990-1991The land-filled
bridge-construction
project

The historical area
street environment
arrange project

Residents
Objection

Our Laboratory

Rediscoveryof local
charmsCommunitybased tourism

2001-2003

2003

Tomo school

NPO Tomo
Machizukuri Kobo

First
renovationof vacanthouses

2000-2001

2003

Tomo magazine/T-house

Tomo school

Renovation ofvacant houses

Renovation ofhistorical houses

2006

Bank for vacanthouses

Concrete
researchTomo magazine/ research ofvacant houses6In debut
What is the historical area?
It is defined by the law to protect cultural
heritage(1975).
If the area is designated to the historical area, it isprotected.

Historical area

CityThe land-fill and bridge-construction
project in 1983
City says if the traffic
problem is not solved, thehistorical area is notdesignated.

Land-fillBridge…but this is going to
break the view.

7

City
1990-1991 The historical area street environment
arrange projectIn the real meaning, this project launched to support
designating the historical area.
But in Tomo, only the street was arranged.

Residents

Action of Residents
First, they stood up to object the land-filland bridge construction project.
In 1999, they organized the symposiumof Tomo to re-discover the historical
heritages.

8Residents

2001 Tomo School
Local school to re-discoverlocal charms.
They renovated the vacanthouse with our laboratory
and had a workshop.
This became the first caseto renovate the vacanthouse.

Residents

2003 NPO Tomo Machizukuri
Kobo
They started NPO.
NPO mainly acts in renovating vacanthouses to activate the local area.
With NPO, more and more people fromexterior areas came to have attention on
Tomo.

9House of Ryoma

Residents

This house was historicallyimportant but it had beenvacant for a few years.
But noone bought, so it wason the verge of destruction.
So NPO borrowed moneyand bought it.
They colleted the donation
to renovate it.
Some special volunteers
worked in construction.

BeforeAfterBank of vacant houses

Residents

The system to find the needsfor vacant houses.
It was succeeded in renovating
many vacant houses.
It leaded to community-basedtourism.NPO
informationask

tenantInformati
on oftenants
rent

registration

ownermanagement

Tabuchi-ya10Community-Based Tourism
Enjoy the townscapes
Merchandises by local people
Visiting historical heritages
Personal tourists mainly

OUR ACTIVITIES

11Our laboratory

1st Step: Re-discover Local
CharmsT-house 2000 & 2001: use the vacanthouses and have exhibitions.
Tomo Magazine 2000 & 2001: research tofind local charms from the different pointof view.
These activities are not only for theobjective residents but to everyone.

Our laboratory

T-house2001
Exhibition eventby the students

12Our laboratory

Tomo Magazine

Our laboratory

2nd Step: Find the way toactivate local charms
Tomo school: organize the workshop withNPO to renovate the vacant house.
We found that the way to activate Tomo
with renovating vacant houses.

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Our laboratory

The workshop with the local residents

Our laboratory

Renovation of the vacant house

Before renovation

In process

Completion

14

Our laboratory

3rd Step:concrete research forcommunity-based tourism
Now Tomo needs more concrete research
to revitalize local resources.
Tomo magazine 2006: focused on vacanthouses and had researches, interviews
and proposals.

Our laboratory

Tomo magazine 2006

Survey on vacant houses

15Thank you for listening

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