UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS: NEW CHALLENGES FOR CREATIVITY AND LIVABILITY IN TOKYO, JAPAN

Speaker:  Hideaki Shimura, Associate Professor
Department of Architecture, Shibaura Institute of Technology
Tokyo, Japan

Planning scholars increasingly emphasize creative and livability in university-community partnerships, with universities expected to play a proactive role in the social arena. The potential benefits of new partnerships are considerable. But Japanese practices have been ineffective due to the top-down style of Japan’s policymaking framework. New partnerships need better planning processes to encourage fair participation, provide sufficient information, find common problems, bring innovative ideas, share project risks, and make accountable decisions. Shimura looks at the historical formations of Japan’s urban communities and new collaborative experiences through the case of Tsukishima, a traditional neighborhood in downtown Tokyo, drawing lessons and challenges from the international comparisons between university programs in Japan and the United States.

Biography:  Hideaki Shimura is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo, Japan. He has a Ph.D. from Waseda University. His specialty is regional planning and community design. He has co-authored seven books, worked on a number of architectural projects, and in 2006, he won the Encouragement Prize from the Architectural Institute of Japan. His current research focuses on the method of collaboration between the community and the university, using as case studies UC Berkeley and other US universities, and looking at these through the perspectives of community partnership; education, service-learning, and planning; faculty research projects and service, and campus planning with the community.