Updated on 2026/04/29

写真a

 
DIMMER, Christian
 
Affiliation
Faculty of International Research and Education, School of International Liberal Studies
Job title
Associate Professor
Degree
Ph.D. (Urban Engineering) ( 2008.01 The University of Tokyo )
Qualified Engineer in Spatial and Environmental Planning (Diplom-Ingenieur Raum- und Umweltplanung) [Master's equivalent]] ( 2001.10 Technical University of Kaiserslautern )
Mail Address
メールアドレス
Profile

Dr. Christian Dimmer is a Germany-born educator, author, researcher, and transition design practitioner who has been based in Tokyo for 25 years. Amidst a cascading polycrisis, the question is no longer whether cities will change—but how. As an Associate Professor of Transition Design & Urban Studies at Waseda University, he explores how urban systems, design practices, and public spaces can act as catalysts for positive socio-ecological transformation. Bridging local knowledge and global frameworks, he engages Tokyo as a dynamic testing ground for resilience, governance, and the future of urban life.

At Waseda School of International Liberal Studies, he teaches courses on Transition Design, Urban Commons, Theories of Placemaking & Urban Practice (Planning Theory), Sustainable Cities & Resilient Communities, Politics of Public Space, The Making of Urban Japan, and Global Urbanism. As an educator and co-learner, he continuously experiments with interactive learning environments that support students with diverse abilities and learning needs.

Christian actively prototypes interdisciplinary & inter-institutional research and engaged pedagogies by involving undergraduate & graduate students in collaborative projects. These often culminate in student-led exhibitions and public events, including Ghost Guide to the Tokyo Olympics (2017), developed in collaboration with the Urban Humanities Initiative at UCLA; contributions to the Seoul Biennale of Architecture & Urbanism (2017 & 2023); and Mapping Tokyo’s Labourscapes (2025). His learning philosophy rests on the idea that once students recognise the value of their contributions to real-world projects, they are able to engage more deeply and thrive.

Christian graduated from the interdisciplinary Spatial & Environmental Planning programme at the Technical University of Kaierslautern/ Germany with his graduation project comparing different 'cultures of public space' in the USA, Germany and Japan. He was supervised by Prof. Markus NEPPL and Prof. Bernd STREICH and also studied under Professor Alber SPEER junior.

Christian has earned his PhD in Urban Engineering from The University of Tokyo with his dissertation ‘[Re]negotiating Public Space: a Historical Critique of Modern Public Space in Metropolitan Japan and its Contemporary Re-valuation’ under the supervision of Prof. NISHIMURA Yukio and Prof. KITAZAWA Takeru. His dissertation examined the social production of public space in modern urban Japan since the Meiji Period with a focus on the priod between 1968 and 2005, drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s triadic conception of space and Actor-network theory.

As a JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) post-doctoral research fellow he was affiliated with the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies at The University of Tokyo, where he examined the 'Politics and Contestations of Public Space in post-growth metropolitan Japan'. This project was carried out in cooperation with his research host Prof. YOSHIMI Shunya.

Christian has worked as assistant-professor for Urban Design at the University of Tokyo, where he taught post-graduate courses on 'Advanced Urban Studies' as well as 'Dissertation Writing.' He also taught graduate course on urban studies and urban design studies at Tokyo's Sophia University as well as Keio University.

Besides his academic work he has cooperated with numerous planning and environmental consultancies in Germany and with architectural firms such as Arata Isozaki and Associates or property developers like Mitsubishi Estate Inc. in Japan. He functioned as urban design and placemaking consultant for large-scale urban regneration schemes in central Tokyo as well as on various new town projects in China. In 2006 he established the architectural and design practice Frontoffice/ Tokyo together with Koen Klinkers, William D. Galloway, and Erez Golani Solomon.

Beyond academia, he is engaged in design-led disaster response and co-founded initiatives such as the Architecture for Humanity Tokyo, Open Architecture Collaborative Tokyo Chapter, the Tohoku Planning Forum, as well as the Alliance for Humanitarian Architecture—fostering exchange and collaboration for resilient and sustainable communities.

As a transition designer, he works through a lens of cosmopolitan localism, connecting communities across Germany, Japan, and Taiwan to support context-sensitive, collaborative pathways towards more resilient urban futures. Further research interests include urban & system theories, planning theory, governance, urban commons, public space, civil society, sustainable cities, adaptive cities, resilient cities, citizen participation and community resilience.

Research Experience

  • 2021.10
    -
    Now

    Waseda University   School of International Liberal Studies   Associate Professor for Transition Design + Urban Studies

    community/ governance innovations, new urban commons

  • 2016.04
    -
    2021.03

    Waseda University   School of International Liberal Studies   Assistant Professor

    renewable energy and community development, new urban commons

  • 2012.04
    -
    2016.03

    The University of Tokyo   Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, Department of Urban Preservation Systems   Assistant Professor

    Research on post-disaster recovery community/ governance innovations, new urban commons, privately owned public spaces (POPS)

  • 2010.10
    -
    2012.03

    The University of Tokyo   Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, Department of Urban Preservation Systems   Specially Appointed Researcher

  • 2008.10
    -
    2010.09

    The University of Tokyo   Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies   Post-doctoral fellowship by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)

Education Background

  • 2008.10
    -
    2010.09

    The University of Tokyo   Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies   Post-doctoral fellowship by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)  

  • 2001.10
    -
    2008.01

    The University of Tokyo   The Graduate School of Engineering   Doctoral Program  

    Laboratory of Urban Design

  • 1995.10
    -
    2001.09

    Technical University of Kaiserslautern   Department of Architecture, Spatial and Environmental Planning, Civil Engineering   Spatial and Environmental Planning Program  

    Qualified Engineer (Spatial and Environmental Planning) [Master's equivalent]

Professional Memberships

  • 2025.01
    -
    Now

    Akira Tamura Memorial - A Town Planning Research Initiative NPO

  • 2021.12
    -
    Now

    Alumni Organisation of "Spatial and Environmental Planning', Technical University of Kaiserlautern

  • 2016.03
    -
    Now

    INURA ー International Network for Urban Research and Action

  • 2011.12
    -
    Now

    Pacific Rim Community Design Network

  • 2010.10
    -
    Now

    German JSPS Alumni Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft der JSPS-Stipendiaten e.V.)

  • 2010.02
    -
    Now

    German Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF Vereinigung für sozialwissenschaftliche Japanforschung e.V))

  • 1998.01
    -
    Now

    Japanese Garden Society Kaiserlautern (Japanischer Garten Kaiserslautern e.V.)

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Research Areas

  • Architectural planning and city planning   Civil Society, Community Empowerment, Participatory Design, Urban Commons, Placemaking, Social Design, Transition Design, Contestations of Public Space

Research Interests

  • Transition Design, Participatory Placemaking, New Urban Commons, Participatory Governance, Community Design, Community Resilience, Empowerment, Capacity Building

Media Coverage

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Papers

  • Tokyo’s Perpetual Resilience Project: Between Local Knowledges and Universal Modernist Concepts

    Christian Dimmer

    in: Barnes, P. ‘Climate Change and Risk Mitigation (Reducing Vulnerabilities & Enhancing Resilience)’, CABI (Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International)     144 - 157  2025.11

    Authorship：Lead author

    　View Summary

    This text explores Tokyo’s evolving urban resilience strategies in response to disaster risks and climate change, with a particular focus on the recently launched Tokyo Resilience Project (TRP). Released to mark the centennial of the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake, TRP outlines five key threats while presenting a long-­ term vision for a safe, sustainable Tokyo over the next century. The chapter situates Tokyo within its historical context, arguing that a distinctive ‘disaster culture’ developed in the pre-­ modern era, in which disasters were accepted as inevitable. Thus, responses focused more on rapid rebuilding than on preventive planning, fostering localised resilience and community agency. In contrast, the modern period introduced a shift towards state-­led, engineering-­based approaches. While technically advanced, these have inadvertently undermined grassroots resilience by displacing citizen engagement with expert-­ driven, technocratic solutions. The TRP is critically examined for its limited civic participation, its top-­ down orientation and its lack of cross-­ departmental coordination. Such fragmented, depoliticised approaches risk fostering single-­ solution responses that are ill-­ equipped to address complex, ‘wicked’
    problems. Drawing on ecological systems theory, the chapter advocates a paradigm shift towards adaptive, participatory governance models, which embrace uncertainty and empower local communities. Influenced by Jane Jacobs’s ecological idea of urbanism, the chapter highlights interdependence, redundancy and bottom-­up innovation as key features of resilient urban systems. Ultimately, resilience is not only a technical issue but also a political and epistemological one. The chapter concludes by calling for the revitalisation of civic agency and community-­based resilience as essential tools in navigating an increasingly uncertain, climate-­challenged future.

    DOI

    Scopus

  • Sustainability and Adaptation in Planning: Community Resilience Against Accelerating Environmental Change

    Christian Dimmer, Mark Kammerbauer

    In: Hommerich, C. And Kimura, M. Sustainability in a Fragile World - Approaches from Germany and Japan,  Sophia University Press     95 - 122  2024.07  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Corresponding author

    　View Summary

    This chapter examines how urban and regional planning can both shape and operationalise resilience in the face of growing climate-related and socio-economic uncertainties. It asks how planning can support communities in coping with and adapting to environmental risks, and how resilience can be embedded within formal planning processes. Focusing on Germany and Japan, the chapter compares approaches to sustainability in contexts shaped by disaster and environmental risk. It highlights post-disaster reconstruction as a critical moment that enables more profound and rapid transformation than conventional planning settings. The analysis argues that sustainability, when aligned with resilience-oriented thinking, can guide the adaptive transformation of the built environment. It also critiques the persistence of growth-driven planning paradigms that have expanded settlements into high-risk areas while relying on technological optimism to manage hazards. Such approaches have increased vulnerability despite later sustainability measures. The chapter concludes that integrating resilience into planning frameworks offers a pathway to more adaptive, risk-aware, and sustainable urban development.

  • Les Jeux catalytiques de Tokyo 2020. Possibilités et difficultés des mouvements de protestation urbains au Japon (The Catalytic Tokyo 2020 Games. Possibilities and Difficulties of Urban Protest Movements in Japan)

    Christian Dimmer

    Savoir/Agir   64 ( 1 ) 105 - 113  2024.06  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International journal]

    Authorship：Lead author

    　View Summary

    On a cold Sunday afternoon in December 2023, elderly activists gathered in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district to screen Tokyo Olympic 2017: Kasumigaoka Public Apartments and discuss urban displacement with the popular philosopher Kohei Saito. The film recounts the eviction of residents to make way for the new National Stadium, the main venue for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Using this case, the paper examines the fragmented nature of urban protest in Japan, where activism often fails to scale beyond small groups or connect across issues. While anti-Olympic movements such as Hangorin no Kai frame resistance in global terms, local struggles over housing, public space, and environmental protection remain weakly linked. The paper argues that a lack of a shared “meta-topical” public sphere limits sustained mobilisation, allowing exclusionary urban redevelopment to persist largely uncontested.

    DOI

  • Tokyo Olympic “Bubble”: The Spatialisation of Corona Politics for and around the 2020 Games

    Christian Dimmer, Erez Golani Solomon

    Mega Event Planning     63 - 77  2024.04  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Corresponding author

    　View Summary

    The Tokyo Olympic programme took place in 43 venues, primarily in Tokyo and vicinity, but it was the construction of an Olympic “Bubble” and the promises associated with it—the well-being of the population, that allowed the Games to take place during a global pandemic. The so-called Olympic “Bubble” system simultaneously promised to protect the health of an increasingly critical Japanese public while seeking to instil confidence in the safety of global participants. The “Bubble” was an intricate system that consisted of a combination of architectural elements, a series of “Olympic playbooks”, a mobile fleet, and a far-reaching agreement between different authorities within and outside of Japan about how the system should operate as a whole. The “Bubble” materialised in an elongated, rhizomatic, drop-like layout extending from Tokyo toward Japan’s international airports, comprising static as well as mobile components. It allowed Japanese government officials at the highest-level to assure safety through a program of strict spatial separation. The article develops along two central lines. First, we show how the Tokyo “Bubble” system has operated spatially, as a precautionary measure, in relation to an ambiguous emergent menace. We positions the “Bubble” in a historiography of public health threats in cities and show how it differed markedly from other past interventions that sought to isolate Olympic sites from their host cities, reflecting what we call an architecturalization of Japanese politics. Second, the chapter discusses the relationship between the architecture of the “Bubble” and the pandemic itself and argues that the “Bubble” system exposed an inherent paradox in the capacity of modular architecture to function. The “Bubble,” as one of many types of isolation methods, was a solution to a problem, but one that came to represent a whole host of other problems in and of itself.

    DOI

  • Towns in Transition - Regional and Ideological Diversity among Local Climate Protection Projects and Regional Revitalization Efforts in Rural Japan

    Christian Dimmer, Daniel Kremers

    S. Moloney, H. Fünfgeld, M. Granberg (Eds.) Local Action on Climate Change Opportunities and Constraints, Routledge     72 - 91  2019.07  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International journal]

    Authorship：Lead author, Corresponding author

    　View Summary

    This chapter examines how Japan’s intertwined challenges of demographic ageing and energy insecurity shape local climate action. Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, renewable energy gained prominence, yet national policy remains conflicted, with continued reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power. Focusing on two case studies in peripheral regions, the chapter highlights how local initiatives diverge from national agendas. Rather than framing their efforts primarily around climate change, communities often address immediate concerns such as depopulation, economic decline, and ageing populations. Climate action thus emerges as a co-benefit of broader strategies for regional revitalisation. The analysis underscores how geographic, demographic, and institutional conditions shape local responses, revealing both significant potential for renewable energy and persistent structural barriers. It calls for a more nuanced understanding of climate governance, emphasising the importance of place-specific dynamics and locally grounded narratives in advancing sustainable transitions.

    DOI

  • Tokyo’s modern legacy and the 2020 Olympic Games

    Christian Dimmer, Erez Golani Solomon

    V. Bharne; T. Sandmeier (Eds.) (2019) Routledge Companion to Global Heritage Conservation, Routledge     487 - 500  2019.02  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Lead author

    　View Summary

    This chapter examines how the decision to award the 2020 Summer Olympics to Tokyo triggered a renewed engagement with modern architectural heritage, particularly buildings from the 1960s. Previously overlooked and often demolished without public debate, these structures gained visibility as redevelopment pressures intensified in preparation for the Games. Rather than offering a comprehensive account of preservation policies, the chapter focuses on emerging debates and alternative conservation practices in a context of limited public awareness and weak regulatory frameworks. Drawing on insights by Maurice Roche, it situates mega-events as catalysts for broader societal discussions on identity, development, and heritage. The chapter argues that the Olympics influenced heritage in three ways: by displacing existing structures, creating future heritage, and indirectly shaping redevelopment across the city. It highlights how heritage is selectively constructed, reflecting shifting social values, economic interests, and symbolic meanings in contemporary urban Japan.

    DOI

  • Miyashita Park, Tokyo: Contested Visions of Public Space in Contemporary Japan

    Christian Dimmer

    City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance and Public Space in the Age of Shrinking Democracy     199 - 213  2017.06  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Lead author, Corresponding author

    　View Summary

    In summer 2010, Miyashita Park became the site of a six-month occupation involving homeless residents, activists, artists, and intellectuals. The protests were sparked by a controversial agreement between Shibuya ward and Nike Japan, granting naming rights and introducing commercial sports facilities without public consultation. This triggered debates on the nature of public space in Japan and led to creative protest tactics using art, music, and design.

    While the conflict might appear to fit global narratives of neoliberal urbanism and “right to the city” struggles, it followed a distinct local logic shaped by evolving ideas of public space and governance in Japan. Existing accounts largely focus on activist perspectives, often overlooking broader socio-spatial dynamics and other stakeholders. Although the protests did not mobilise widespread public support, they influenced later movements, notably the anti-nuclear protests of 2012.

    DOI

  • Japan After March 11th 2011: Between Swift Reconstruction and Sustainable Restructuring

    Christian Dimmer

    Yan, W.-L..; Galloway, W. D. (Eds.) Rethinking Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation in a Time of Change     23 - 40  2017.03  [Refereed]  [Invited]

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

    Scopus

    9
    Citation
    (Scopus)

  • Place-Making Before and After 3.11: The Emergence of Social Design in Post-Disaster, Post-Growth Japan

    Christian Dimmer

    Review of Japanese Culture and Society   28 ( 1 ) 198 - 226  2016.12  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

    　View Summary

    In the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, many observers anticipated a profound socio-political transformation in Japan. While such expectations largely faded amid institutional inertia and slow recovery, this paper argues that “3.11” catalysed significant innovation within place- and space-making practices. Rather than producing entirely new approaches, the disaster accelerated and interconnected pre-existing alternative practices, contributing to the emergence of a more integrated field of “social design” (shakai dezain). Adopting a synthetic perspective, the paper traces how 3.11 fostered unprecedented collaboration among architects, designers, artists, and citizens, blurring disciplinary boundaries and emphasising co-creation, participation, and process-oriented design. These practices prioritise place-specific responses and open-ended development, reflecting broader societal challenges such as ageing and depopulation. 3.11 acted less as a rupture than as an intensifier, shaping a new geography of socially engaged design with lasting implications for future community building and governance. The paper concludes by emphasising the importance of social capital and community resilience in an age of growing uncertainty and accelerating socio-ecological change.

    DOI

  • Evolving Place Governance Innovations and Pluralising Reconstruction Practices in Post-disaster Japan

    Christian Dimmer

    Planning Theory & Practice   15 ( 2 ) 260 - 265  2014.04  [Refereed]  [Invited]

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

  • Re- imagining public space: the vicissitudes of Japan’s privately owned public spaces

    Christian Dimmer

    Brumann, C., & Schulz, E. (Eds.). (2012). Urban Spaces in Japan: Cultural and Social Perspectives (1st ed.). Routledge.     74 - 105  2012.06  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International journal]

    Authorship：Lead author

    　View Summary

    This chapter examines the renewed prominence of public space in urban Japan, particularly since the early 2000s, as cities promote liveliness, tourism, and urban identity through initiatives such as open cafés, street activities, and redesigned plazas. It asks why public space has gained such attention and how its meanings, production, and governance have evolved. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, the study conceptualises public space as socially constructed through interactions among diverse actors, institutions, and discourses. Challenging Western-centric assumptions, it reconstructs historically specific understandings of public space in Japan and traces their transformation from modernist, state-led planning to more fragmented and collaborative approaches. Through case studies—including grassroots initiatives, privately owned public spaces, and large-scale developments—it highlights shifting roles of public and private actors. The thesis argues that contemporary public space reflects broader socio-economic changes, governance transformations, and cultural redefinitions, culminating in a renewed, though contested, urban spatial agenda.

    DOI

  • Introduction: Urban Spaces in Japan

    Christoph Brumann, Christian Dimmer, Evelyn Schulz

    Brumann, C., & Schulz, E. (Eds.). (2012). Urban Spaces in Japan: Cultural and Social Perspectives (1st ed.). Routledge     1 - 14  2012.05  [Invited]  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Lead author

    　View Summary

    This chapter revisits the role of space in social theory, challenging its long-standing subordination to time. Space, very generally speaking, has been a less salient category in social theory than time. Perhaps this is related to the crystallisation of social science in a historical period obsessed with progress and development, when theories about the evolution of species, the rise and future demise of capitalism and the advance of humankind from savagery to (Western) civilisation captured scholarly and laypeople imagination. But ever since as well, we have seen recurring predictions of a growing irrelevance of space and distance, all the way from Karl Marx in Grundrisse – ‘Capital by its nature drives beyond every spatial barrier. Thus the creation of the physical conditions of exchange – of the means of communication and transport – the annihilation of space by time – becomes an extraordinary necessity for it’ (1973: 524) – to David Harvey’s diagnosis of a ‘time-space compression’ in contemporary society (1989). And who could deny that previously insurmountable distances have shrunk in the face of jet-speed transportation and lightning-speed information flows. Yet for all the proliferation of mass media, Web 2.0, mobile phones, cheap airfares and container shipping, the insight dawns on us that for most people, their immediate surroundings in non-virtual reality continue to be experientially important. And often enough, we find space coveted and contested, rather than stripped of its political or economic relevance.

    DOI

  • Renegotiating Public Space :: A Historical Critique of Modern Public Space in Metropolitan Japan and its Contemporary Re-valuation

    Christian Dimmer

    Graduation Thesis, The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Urban Engineering     1 - 356  2008.01  [Refereed]

    Authorship：Lead author

  • Mythos öffentlicher Raum-wie öffentlich muss der Stadtraum der Zukunft noch sein? (Myth Public Space - How public must Urban Spaces be in the Future?))

    Aesche Jens, Christian Dimmer

    Graduation Thesis, Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Department of Architecture, Spatial and Environmental Planning, Civil Engineering     1 - 248  2001.09  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International journal]

    Authorship：Lead author, Corresponding author

    　View Summary

    The ideal of the 'European City' with its dense organic urban structure and its coherent network of public spaces stands as the prototype of urbanity and still influences planning theory and practice strongly. The tropes of the agora or the forum often appear as the archetypes of 'the public' proper and together they signify the myth of an ideal and democratic urban society which is constituted and articulated in them. At the beginning of the 21st century, however, the question evolves, if the traditional and entrenched models of public space are still adequate against the background of a rapidly changing society, in the so called information age. Are the typical ideas and notions of the 'city' which are based to a large degree on the perception of its public spaces only of a symbolic significance? Are meaningful public spaces gradually replaced by virtual spaces like chat rooms and online forums? The compact city, the city of the short distances with its dense variety of mixed land uses isn’t any longer the sole ‘market place’ for the exchange of goods and information. The city as a coherent and homogeneous constructum does no longer exist except as a very powerful and persistent myth. Instead the city is characterised by fragmentation and splintering urbanisation as the diagnoses of Touraine ['The City – An Antiquated Bluepint', 1996], Koolhaas ['Generic City', 1997], Sieverts ['City Without Cities', 1999], and Augé ['Non-Places', 1998] show. At the same time, with the Cyberspace or 'Virtual Cities' [Roetzer, 1997] new forms of public spaces and the public sphere are evolving – parallel spaces to the material world. Which effects these new spaces will have on the life of man and the city, cannot be foreseen yet. In the material world the leeway of municipal planners becomes ever smaller; the complex socio-economic interdependencies, which are triggered by globalization, privatisation and deregulation of public tasks, become ever more complex. Beside comparable international phenomena such as proliferating shopping malls, new urbanism, gated communities, which are taking place all over the world in a similar fashion, also society-immanent socio-cultural trends are of crucial importance for public space. Public space as link between the realms of the 'private' and the 'public' is also increasingly under pressure of the 'event and consumer society' and therefore is can only fulfil its functions for the society as a whole in a reduced manner. Furthermore, the highly individualized and mobile society with its changing and diversifying life scripts and value conceptions questions the traditional notion of the public. The image of public space as an area for the society of the 21st Century can no longer be met with a mystifying Agora concept. A new fresh view and an examination of the current developments are essential for the future treatment of public space. At the same time, however, also the historical conditions need to be examined in order to obtain a clear view on the past in order to learn for the future.

  • 経験図再考ー「Daily Rhythm (デイリーリズム)」(Rhythmic Shinjuku: An attempted Deep Map of Flows and Disruptions)

    Christian Dimmer

    Lived Shinjuku: Collected Essays — Urban Experiences 1975–2025     61 - 66  2025.10  [Invited]  [Domestic journal]

    Authorship：Lead author

    　View Summary

    Edited book, Miyazono, Y.; Saito, N.; Nakajima, N.; Hatsuda, K. and Sand, J. (Eds.)

  • Conversation: Life in Tokyo after the Corona Pandemic

    Christian Dimmer, Yu Honma, Hiroto Kobayashi, Daisuke Tanaka, Taku Tanikawa

    Mita Hyoron   89 ( 8-9 ) 10 - 25  2022.08  [Invited]  [Domestic journal]

    　View Summary

    The discussion explores Tokyo’s future after COVID-19, highlighting tensions between continued large-scale redevelopment and shifting urban needs. Despite remote work, major office projects persist, raising concerns about overbuilding and the long-term viability of office-centred development. The pandemic has challenged the fundamental premise of cities as places of gathering, prompting reflection on why people come to Tokyo and how urban value is defined. Participants emphasise a shift toward experiential urbanism—food, entertainment, and serendipitous encounters—as key attractions, alongside the enduring importance of physical space despite digitalisation. At the same time, concerns emerge about inequality, over-standardisation, and the loss of “miscellaneousness” that underpins urban culture. Social connections are identified as central to resilience, yet often weak in Tokyo, suggesting a need for more inclusive, open public spaces and “connection-building” initiatives. Ultimately, Tokyo’s strength lies in its adaptability, but its future depends on balancing redevelopment with community, culture, and human-scale interactions.

  • Soziale Resilienz – Lehren / Lernen aus dem internationalen Kontext (Social Resilience - Learning from an international perspective)

    Christian Dimmer, Mark Kammerbauer

    PlanerIn   22-2   21 - 23  2022.04  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Corresponding author

  • Assembling Sony's Presence in Ginza

    Christian Dimmer, Erez Golani Solomon

    Proceedings of the 16th International Docomomo Conference, Tokyo Japan 2020+1: Inheritable Resilience—Sharing Values of Global Modernities   4   1412 - 1417  2021.10  [Refereed]  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Corresponding author

    　View Summary

    This paper offers a critical re-evaluation of the Ginza Sony Building as a key architectural expression of Japan’s post-war consumer culture. Designed by Yoshinobu Ashihara and completed in 1966, the building is interpreted as a multilayered assemblage through which diverse modernist traditions intersect and evolve. Paradoxically, its significance has become clearer following its demolition. The study argues that renewed interest in the building was catalysed by Tokyo’s selection as host of the 2020 Summer Olympics, prompting a reassessment of its historical and cultural value. It traces four key trajectories: Sony’s presence in Ginza, the application of modern architectural ideas, the relationship between the building and Sony’s products, and its transformation from building to park and hybrid “building-park.” Ultimately, the paper repositions the Sony Building as a dynamic urban assemblage shaped by technological innovation, consumer society, and Olympic-driven urban change.

  • Bubble Protocol

    Erez Golani Solomon, Christian Dimmer

    Review of Japanese Culture and Society   33/34 ( 1 ) 25 - 40  2021.07  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Corresponding author

    　View Summary

    This paper examines the spatial and political implications of the “Olympic bubble” implemented during the 2020 Summer Olympics. While venues across Tokyo were largely completed before the Games’ postponement, the shift to a no-spectator format in 2021 prompted a second wave of temporary construction. These interventions—fences, checkpoints, testing zones, and controlled circulation systems—formed a comprehensive apparatus designed to separate Olympic participants from the wider public. The “bubble” functioned as both a public health measure and a political instrument, enabling authorities to justify proceeding with the Games despite domestic opposition. It sought to contain infection risks while projecting safety to both national and global audiences. Architecturally, it translated pandemic governance into spatial form, embodying control, segregation, and surveillance. Though highly visible in the city, these structures remained largely absent from global media representations, revealing a disconnect between the lived and mediated realities of the Olympic experience.

    DOI

  • Smart Cities in Asia: Governing Development in the Era of HyperConnectivity. Cities. Edited by Yu-Min Joo and Teck-Boon Tan

    Dimmer, Christian

    Pacific Affairs, Volume 94, Number 2     401 - 403  2021.07  [Invited]  [International journal]

    Authorship：Lead author, Corresponding author

    DOI

  • Interlude 2: Tokyo - Common Matters

    Christian Dimmer, Keigo Kobayashi

    Cuff, D; Loukaitou-Sideris, A; Presner, T.; Zubiaurre, M.; Jae-an Crisman, J. (Eds.) Urban Humanities : New Practices for Reimagining the City     76 - 84  2020.04  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Lead author, Corresponding author

    　View Summary

    This chapter examines the transformation of Tokyo's YaNeSen neighbourhood into a vibrant laboratory for post-growth urban life. Once shaped by Japan’s consumerist boom, the neighbourhood has become a site of experimentation where civic entrepreneurs, artists, and residents develop alternative social, cultural, and economic practices. These initiatives, often driven by personal motivations rather than explicit political agendas, collectively prefigure more democratic, pluralistic, and sustainable forms of urban living. The study highlights how YaNeSen’s distinct spatial and historical conditions—its survival of the Great Kantō Earthquake and wartime destruction, its fine-grained urban fabric, and its temple-based heritage—have fostered openness, adaptability, and community engagement. It also traces the emergence of a shared place identity through grassroots media and activism. Conceptually, the paper frames these developments through the lens of the “commons,” understood as dynamic, layered, and co-produced networks of people, practices, and shared resources.

  • Techniques for Collective Creativity - Technique 4.4: Community Innovation Forum

    Christian Dimmer, Yu Ohtani

    de la Peña, D.; Jones Allen, D.; Hester, R.; Hou, J.; Lawson, L.; McNally, M. (Eds.), Design As Democracy: Techniques for Collective Creativity, Island Press     122 - 127  2017.12

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

  • 1am-5am: Tokyo, Urban Rhythms and the politics of trains schedule

    Christian Dimmer, Erez Golani Solomon, Brian Morris

    Scapegoat Publishing, Special Issue Night   4   29 - 39  2017.04  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Lead author

    　View Summary

    This paper explores a largely overlooked “temporal void” at the heart of Japanese cities: the roughly four-hour gap between the last and first trains. While urban theory has long engaged with spatial voids as sites of possibility, this study shifts attention to time, examining how urban rhythms—structured by commuter rail systems—shape everyday life. Focusing on Tokyo, the paper conceptualises the train network as a human–technology assemblage that governs patterns of movement, activity, and rest. It asks why this recurring temporal gap has remained largely unquestioned, unlike spatial voids often seen as opportunities for intervention. Through a speculative framework, the authors consider how extending train operations to 24 hours might transform urban experience, reconfiguring both social practices and the physical city. The paper argues that attending to temporal structures opens new ways of understanding urban life, revealing how institutionalised rhythms discipline behaviour while also delimiting possibilities for more diverse and playful uses of the city.

  • {Re}assembling Public Space: Evolving Geographies of Contestation, Celebration, and Collaboration in Contemporary Tokyo

    Christian Dimmer

    F. Atsumi (Ed.) OrNamenTTokYo - in/significance of the ‘common’ in Japan, Art-Phil Publishers     33 - 37  2016.11  [Invited]

    Authorship：Lead author

  • Re-use of Former Military Brownfields and Environmental Model Projects in Small Rural Communities in Germany

    Christian Dimmer

    City Planning   64 ( 3 ) 56 - 59  2015.06  [Refereed]  [Invited]

    Authorship：Lead author

    CiNii

  • From Laissez-faire and Nonchalance to Noblesse Obligé – Tokyo’s New Corporate Place-Making Paradigm

    Christian Dimmer

    Honda, S.; Radović, D. (Eds.) Measuring the Non-Measurable 07, Mn’M Workbook 3: Future Urban Intensities, Flick Studio     10 - 17  2014.03  [Invited]  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

  • Kultur, Kommerz, Community – Kunst als Mittel der Stadterneuerung in Japan (Culture, Consumerism, Community – Art as Means for Urban Renewal in Japan)

    Christian Dimmer

    PlanerIn   5   55 - 56  2013.05  [Refereed]  [Invited]

    Authorship：Lead author

  • Japan im Spannungsfeld zwischen raschem Wiederaufbau und nachhaltigem Umbau (Japan after 3.11: Between quick reconstruction and sustainable Transformation)

    Christian Dimmer

    Geographische Rundschau   ( 3 ) 4 - 10  2013.03  [Refereed]  [Invited]

    Authorship：Lead author

  • Aesthetic Intelligence: Designing Smart and Beautiful Architectural Spaces

    Kai Kasugai, Carsten Röcker, Bert Bongers, Daniela Plewe, Christian Dimmer

    Lecture Notes in Computer Science     360 - 361  2011.11

    Authorship：Last author

    DOI

    Scopus

    10
    Citation
    (Scopus)

  • Die Welt im Garten : Fachbereich ARUBI möchte Kooperation mit japanischen Universitäten intensivieren (The World in the Garden: Department of Architecture, Spatial and Environmental Planning, Civil Engineering wants to strengthen Cooperation with Japanese Universities))

    Christian Dimmer, Franz Kohorst, Hanns-Stephan Wüst

    Universität Kaiserslautern: Uni-Spectrum. (2000), 2     32 - 33  2000.08  [Invited]  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Lead author

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Books and Other Publications

  • Catalytic Mega-Events: Tokyo 2020 and Planetary Urban Transformation

    Filippo Bignami, Christian Dimmer, Erez Golani Solomon, Devena Haggis, Naomi C. Hanakata( Part： Joint editor, Contribution of 2 book chapters as author; editor of sub-section on Tokyo's olympic urban transformation; co-author of introductory essay, co-editor of overall book)

    Transcript Publishing  2026.12 ISBN: 9783837665192

  • Shinjuku: Urban Anthropology of the World's largest Infrastructure Hub (Forthcoming)

    Marco Amati, Brandon Barre, Izumi Kuroishi, Christian Dimmer( Part： Joint author, Joint authorship)

    Palgrave MacMillan  2026.12

  • Common Matters

    Christian Dimmer, Keigo Kobayashi, Ayano Kumazawa, Hyeok Namkung, Haruka Uemura, Wataru Kitaoka, Hayate Watanabe, Nozomu Shiotani, Shun Kuronuma, Wataru Nakanishi, Chen Jiahui, Junko Kawabata, Ryuta Fujii( Part： Joint author, Co-curator, Editor)

    self-published  2017.08

    　View Summary

    Exhibition booklet for an exhibit representing the global city Tokyo at the 2017 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (Imminent Commons: Commoning Cities).

    We surveyed the Yanaka area in line with the exhibition theme of introducing examples of Tokyo’s commons. In the city of Tokyo, filled with the paint-by-numbers of private and public land, people have forgotten that they can change the environment they find themselves in by being a part of it. In the Yanaka area, there are a number of activities that are an extension of personal life and hobby activities, which cross the boundaries and build a number of loose relationships to form a bottom-up living environment. What each of them picked up as a resource were the seemingly “ordinary” things in their lives.

  • Living Together - Living in a community; Sweden’s Collective Housing

    Christian Dimmer, Aiko Okazaki, Emiko Ura, Rieko Shiraki, Yumiko Ito, Yu Wada, Yoshie Sakamoto, Yumiko Yanagisawa( Part： Joint author, Editorial team, segment author)

    Collective Housing Study Group  2016.12

  • This is Collective Housing! 12 Years Collective Housing Kankanmori

    Collective House, Kankanmori Residents' Association, Mori no Kaze( Part： Joint editor, Contribution of two chapters and joint editing)

    2014.11 ISBN: 9784810708141

  • Planning for sustainable Asian cities : APSA 11th International Congress - Selected Papers

    Christian Dimmer, Yukio Nishimura( Part： Edit, Selection of best papers, editing of submission, compilation of the volume)

    The University of Tokyo  2012.03

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Works

  • Symposium + Student-led Exhibition: A Section through Tokyo's Labourscapes—Exploring multiple Dimensions of Machikōba

    Christian Dimmer, Keigo Kobayashi, Vincent Mirza, David Slater, in, alphabetical order  Artistic work 

    2025.11
    　
    　

     [International coauthorship]

    　View Summary

    The sound of machines rises from the ground floor: a lathe in operation, with apartments above. Next door, a welding workshop sits behind a sliding door. In Tokyo neighbourhoods such as Sumida or Ōta, production remains embedded in everyday life. Yet modern urban development has fragmented the city—also in Japan. This separation of disciplines and functions has brought progress, but also significant losses.

    The exhibition Tokyo Labourscapes, held from 28 to 30 November 2025, explored how such divisions might be overcome. For three days, the exhibition space was transformed into a temporary machi-koba—an urban workshop that experimented with new forms of living and working together. The project foregrounded the idea of integrated urban environments, where production, dwelling, and community are no longer strictly separated.

    Initiated as an international and interdisciplinary collaboration, the project brought together Prof. Keigo Kobayashi and Prof. Christian Dimmer (Waseda University), Prof. Vincent Mirza (University of Ottawa), Prof. David Slater (Sophia University), and Prof. Akio Yasumori (Institute of Science Tokyo). It built on years of coordinated teaching across institutions, which provided a shared platform for joint inquiry and exchange.

    The exhibition, accompanied by lectures, performances, and roundtable discussions, exemplifies the close interconnection between academic research, collaborative teaching, and public outreach. It forms part of an evolving international network dedicated to advancing the study and practice of machi-koba and related urban socio-economic ecologies.

Presentations

  • Public lecture: ‘A Section through Tokyo’s Labourscape. Work, Space, and Community in Sumida’s Machikoba Neighbourhoods’

    Christian Dimmer, David Slater  [Invited] [International coauthorship]

    roundtable as part of the Contemporary Tokyo Seminar Series  (Sophia University)  Rikkyo University, Institut Francais, DIJ, Waseda University, Temple University, Sophia University

    Presentation date： 2026.04

    　View Summary

    Although urban labour is a central policy domain shaping contemporary economies—and has historically constituted the very substrate of urbanisation and the glue binding cities together—the intersections of labour, community, and urban and architectural space remain surprisingly underexplored. As climate change and intensifying geopolitical instability further unsettle established socio-economic arrangements and challenge prevailing modes of production and consumption, it becomes increasingly urgent to disentangle the complex assemblages that constitute Tokyo’s “labourscapes” and to translate this understanding into actionable pathways toward alternative economic models in the Anthropocene. This presentation examines an ongoing interdisciplinary, trans-institutional experiment in research and education jointly developed by urban anthropologist Vincent Mirza of University of Ottawa, cultural anthropologist David H. Slater of Sophia University, architect Keigo Kobayashi, and urban studies scholar Christian Dimmer, both of Waseda University. Focusing on machikoba—small-scale, family-run town factories—in Sumida Ward, the initiative was conceived not only as a response to this analytical and political challenge, but also as a model for an engaged pedagogy.

  • Integrated Landscapes of Everyday Life and Work: Philosophies of the Good Life in and around Machikoba

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited] [International coauthorship]

    Symposium + Student-led Exhibition: A Section through Tokyo's Labourscapes—Exploring multiple Dimensions of Machikoba  (Shibaura House, Tokyo)  Christian Dimmer, Keigo Kobayashi, Vincent Mirza, David Slater (in alphabetical order)

    Presentation date： 2025.11

    Event date：
    2025.11
    　
    　

    　View Summary

    The symposium + studend-led exhibition explores the many meanings of Machikōba—from its literal associations with small-scale manufacturing and craftsmanship to its wider significance in shaping neighbourhoods, social networks, and ways of living and working. The ground floor of Shibaura House will be transformed into a Machikōba within the city itself, inviting visitors to encounter and interact with the tools, ideas, and inspirations that point toward new possibilities for urban life—where work, dwelling, and creation coexist and evolve together in the context of the global Anthropocene. The symposium takes place at the top floor of Shibaura House—itself an emerging form of new type of Machikōba that unifies work, life and community.

  • A Section through Tokyo's micro-manufacturing Eco Systems

    Christian Dimmer[International coauthorship]

    International Workshop on Platform Urbanization  (Waseda University, School of International Liberal Studies)  Keiko Nishimura, and Filippo Bignami, Naomi Hanakata, Marco Palma

    Presentation date： 2025.10

    　View Summary

    Introduction of the ongoing Tokyo Labourscapes project to researchers working on precarious labour in the context of digital platforms in Tokyo, Singapore and Switzerland, with the aim of identifying common ground for future joint grant applications and research collaborations. The focus would expand to include both blue- and white-collar labour, examining how they are similarly affected by rapid technological change, as well as broader shifts such as deglobalisation and geopolitical instability that are dramatically reshaping established socio-economic patterns.

  • Co-creating the City as a Commons

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited]

    International symposium 'Design + Commons', Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia 

    Presentation date： 2025.10

    Event date：
    2025.10
    　
    　

  • Reflections on Rural Regeneration in Japan and Germany

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited]

    Panel discussion: ‘Rural Revitalisation by Creative Industries in Germany and Japan’Pavilion of the Federal Republic of Germany'. Pavilion of the Federal Republic of Germany, Osaka EXPO 2025 

    Presentation date： 2025.10

    Event date：
    2025.10
    　
    　

  • ‘Convening Publics, Fomenting Change: Catalytic Role of Creative Practices in Times of Accelerating Change II

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited]

    International Colloquium – Tokyo meeting: Takayama Akira: Performance, Social Change and Preparing for the Japanese Future 

    Presentation date： 2025.05

    Event date：
    2025.05
    　
    　

  • Convening Publics, Fomenting Change: Catalytic Role of Creative Practices in Times of Accelerating Change I

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited]

    International Colloquium – New York meeting: Takayama Akira - Evacuation-Performace, Social Change the Japanese Future 

    Presentation date： 2024.11

    Event date：
    2024.11
    　
    　

  • Smart and Ethical Cities through Smart Citizens

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited]

    Panel discussion 'Smart City wird Wirklichkeit. Konzeption und Planung unserer nachhaltigen Städte der Zukunft (Smart Cities becoming a Reality: Conception and Planning of sustainable Future Cities)', DJW (Japanese/German Business Association / 日独産業協会), Nagatacho 

    Presentation date： 2023.11

    Event date：
    2023.11
    　
    　

  • Towards ‘Deep Adaptation’ and Community Resilience in post-3.11 Japan: The Onagawa Case

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited]

    Post Disaster Reconstruction: Learning from Japan  (Beirut)  American University of Beirut, School of Architecture and Design

    Presentation date： 2022.04

  • Deep Adaptation, Community Resilience and Sustainability - Examining Emergent Bottom up Placemaking in post-disaster Japan

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited]

    (University of Illinois, Japan House)  University of Illinois, Japan House, Designing Everyday Life in Modern Japan Course, Instructor: Chris Palmieri

    Presentation date： 2022.04

    　View Summary

    What is the purpose of urban design and placemaking? What is our 'endgame'? What are the big objectives, every individual design project should address? The presentation outlines the planetary crisis the world is facing - resource depletion, climate change, migration crises, geo-political conflict - and it argues that placemaking plays a crucial role for tackling global challenges, locally. What are the ontological and practical implications for designing sustainability transitions? After outlining some theoretical implications and discussing possible benchmarks as metrics for meaningful transition design projects, the presentation examines the example of the emergent, participatory placemaking practice in Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture, and tries to draw concrete lessons for wider, global debates on sustainability transitions.

  • Deep Adaptation, Resilience and Sustainability - The Rise of Bottom up Placemaking in post-disaster Japan

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited]

    Guest lecture: National University of Singapore - Course Urban Design Theory and Practice  National University of Singapore, College of Design and Engineering

    Presentation date： 2022.03

    　View Summary

    Linking the concepts of resilience and sustainability for deep adaptation to climate change. For facilitating sustainability transitions and community resilience participatory planning plays a key role.

  • ❒³ LE Minimal Shelter Space: Proposals for Providing Individual Shelters for Evacuation Centers in Japan

    Christian Dimmer, Liz Maly, Astrid Klein, Yoshinori Abe, Hideki Konno  [Invited] [International coauthorship]

    "❒³LE: Minimal Shelter Space" International Competition, Final Jury  (Sendai, Sendai Forus)  Alliance for Humanitarian Architecture

    Presentation date： 2022.01

    Event date：
    2022.01
    　
    　

  • Facilitating community-to-community Learning: Rural Revitalisation in German and Japan

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited]

    European Innovation CoCreation  (Taipei)  European Innovation CoCreation

    Presentation date： 2022.01

  • Assembling Collective Housing in Urban Japan

    Christian Dimmer  [Invited]

    European Innovation CoCreation  (Taipei)  European Innovation CoCreation

    Presentation date： 2021.12

    　View Summary

    Presenting the emergence and assemblage of new collective forms of living in urban Japan.

  • Bubble Protocol - The Spatialisation of Corona Politics

    Christian Dimmer, Erez Golani Solomon  [Invited] [International coauthorship]

    International Conference: Olympic Games and Global Cities  (Paris)  Co-organised by the Fondation France-Japon de l'EHESS, Kyoto Seika University, the Campus Condorcet and the Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris. With the support of the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Paris Nord, Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO).

    Presentation date： 2021.11

    Event date：
    2021.11
    -
    2021.12

    　View Summary

    The Olympic and Paralympic programs took place in 43 venues, primarily in Tokyo and vicinity. Some of the venues were built for the Olympic games from scratch while others, existing arenas, buildings and sites, went through slight modification so that they could be used for the competitions. The construction of all venues was completed before the originally designated start of the games in July 2020. These Olympic venues were mostly ‘waiting’ during the postponement period. But that wasn’t, after all, the end of construction. The later decision in early March 2021 to conduct the Olympic games in a “bubble” form encouraged a second wave of construction projects, at the perimeters of these Olympic venues. Our lecture will show how the construction of an Olympic “bubble” and the promises associated with it allowed decision-makers to stand against a growing pressure to cancel the games. The “bubble” system was, for the decision-makers, a way to demonstrate to an increasingly wary public in Japan that the organisers would be able to contain a possible Olympic sick cluster and prevent the spread of the new delta virus variant into the larger Japanese population, and then, its territory. It was, at the same time, an assurance presented to an anxious world public that the Olympics would not turn into a global superspreader event. The “bubble” system allowed the highest-level Japanese government officials to assure safety through strict spatial separation. The “bubble” construction project directly reflects a position of the Japanese government in its attempt to cope with a global pandemic and is, therefore, highly political. It is “invested with tasks of social control” and reflects an architecturalization of politics. It functions as yet another instance of the Covid-19 ‘lockdown legacy’. The temporary constructions demonstrate how ideas of strict quarantine and safety protocol translated into architectural means.

  • The Spatialisation of Corona Politics during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

    Christian Dimmer, Erez Golani Solomon  [Invited] [International coauthorship]

    Project TOT City - Tokyo Olympics 2020: Transformations, City and Citizenship in a Case Study  (Embassy of Switzerland in Japan)  University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), University of Tsukuba (TIAS), National University of Singapore, New York University.

    Presentation date： 2021.11

    Event date：
    2021.11
    　
    　

    　View Summary

    The Olympic and Paralympic programs took place in 43 venues, primarily in Tokyo and vicinity. Some of the venues were built for the Olympic games from scratch while others, existing arenas, buildings and sites, went through slight modification so that they could be used for the competitions. The construction of all venues was completed before the originally designated start of the games in July 2020. These Olympic venues were mostly ‘waiting’ during the postponement period. But that wasn’t, after all, the end of construction. The later decision in early March 2021 to conduct the Olympic games in a “bubble” form encouraged a second wave of construction projects, at the perimeters of these Olympic venues. Our lecture will show how the construction of an Olympic “bubble” and the promises associated with it allowed decision-makers to stand against a growing pressure to cancel the games. The “bubble” system was, for the decision-makers, a way to demonstrate to an increasingly wary public in Japan that the organisers would be able to contain a possible Olympic sick cluster and prevent the spread of the new delta virus variant into the larger Japanese population, and then, its territory. It was, at the same time, an assurance presented to an anxious world public that the Olympics would not turn into a global superspreader event. The “bubble” system allowed the highest-level Japanese government officials to assure safety through strict spatial separation. The “bubble” construction project directly reflects a position of the Japanese government in its attempt to cope with a global pandemic and is, therefore, highly political. It is “invested with tasks of social control” and reflects an architecturalization of politics. It functions as yet another instance of the Covid-19 ‘lockdown legacy’. The temporary constructions demonstrate how ideas of strict quarantine and safety protocol translated into architectural means.

  • Corporate Branding Center: Assembling Sony's Presence in Ginza

    Christian Dimmer, Erez Golani Solomon[International coauthorship]

    16th International Docomomo Conference Tokyo Japan 2020+1  (Tokyo)  DoCoMoMo Japan

    Presentation date： 2021.09

    Event date：
    2021.08
    -
    2021.09

    　View Summary

    This paper offers a critical re-evaluation of what is arguably the clearest representation of a Japanese consumer electronic and media corporation in architectural form: the ‘Ginza Sony Building’. The paper argues that architect Yoshinobu Ashihara’s 1966 modern masterpiece could be seen as a multilayered assemblage through which a number of distinct modernist traditions have evolved. This aspect of the building, we argue, consolidates more clearly in the present, ironically, only after it has been demolished - in its absence. The building’s status as a modernist icon and, consequently, fame developed gradually since it was opened. But it is a series of recent events and the resulting dynamic that encourages us to revisit the building, with the aim of constructing a wider, more satisfying understanding of its value. The renewed relevance of the ‘Sony Building’, we know in hindsight, was determined when Tokyo was announced as a host for the 2020 Olympics. That announcement in September 2013 was a catalyst for a chain of events that reveals four distinct ‘evolutions’ in which the iconic building plays a distinct role. We discuss the change over time of: [1.] the emergence and presence of Sony in Ginza, [2.] the employment of modern architectural traditions and ideas, [3.]the linkage between Sony’s flagship products and the building, and [4.] the representations of Sony as an architectural form and how it evolved from ‘building’ to ‘park’ and to the expected ‘building-park’. The paper, then, offers a re-reading of the modernist building as non-discrete urban assemblage at the intersection of new technologies for consumer electronics, novel architectural ideas, a Post-War nascent consumer society, and, an urban district that transformed because of the 1964 Games and is currently re-transforming through the Tokyo Olympics. The paper recognizes ‘Sony Building’ as a relevant object of study and repositions it in the current context. It accounts for the main evolutionary traditions and shows how the building encourages their composition.

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Research Projects

  • Mapping Tokyo's Labourscapes

    self-funded  self-funded

    Project Year :

    2024.07
    -
    　
     

    Christian Dimmer, Keigo Kobayashi, Vincent Mirze, David Slater, in, alphabetical order

     [International coauthorship]

  • Mapping Local Climate Protection and Regional Development Projects

    Auswärtige Amt der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Foreign Office, The Federal Republik of Germany)  Klima Fond (Dialogue for Climate Action fund), internal grant, competitive between all German embassies world wide, officially submitted through the German Embassy Tokyo

    Project Year :

    2016.01
    -
    2016.12
     

    Shikibu Oishi, Franz Waldenberger, Christian Dimmer, Daniel Kremers

  • Emerging new governance models and community innovations in post-disaster Japan

    self-sponsored  self-sponsored

    Project Year :

    2011.03
    -
    2016.03
     

    Christian Dimmer, Jan Lindenberg, Renata Piazza, Marieluise Jonas, Hiroko Otsuka, Shunsuke Hirose, Gesa Neuert

  • Climate Protection— Chances for Regional and Local Development

    Auswärtige Amt der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Foreign Office, The Federal Republik of Germany)  Klima Fond (Dialogue for Climate Action fund), internal grant, competitive between all German embassies world wide, officially submitted through the German Embassy Tokyo

    Project Year :

    2015.01
    -
    2015.12
     

    Shikibu Oishi, Franz Waldenberger, Christian Dimmer, Daniel Kremers

  • Research of integrated preservation planning for scattered Buddhist heritages and their surrounding region

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

    Project Year :

    2012.04
    -
    2015.03
     

    NISHIMURA YUKIO, KUBOTA Aya, NAGASE Setsuji, KUROSE Takefumi, DIMMER Christian

    　View Summary

    The study clarified following three points mainly by field surveys and literature reviews in Lumbini and its surrounding area including the northern India. 1) The history of Buddhist ruins, 2) the conservation effort and its evaluation through the progress of Kenzo Tange’s master plan in 1970s by United Nations and local regulations such as land-use control and building permission, and 3) the contemporary challenges, which Buddhist ruins have faced. Combining these findings, the study constructed a comprehensive conservation method for the Buddhist ruins and surrounding areas as a conclusion.

  • Mega Events and Global Cities

    self-sponsored  self-sponsored

    Project Year :

    2013.09
    -
    　
     

    Christian Dimmer, Erez Golani Solomon

  • Inventorising Tokyo’s Privately Owned Public Spaces

    The University of Tokyo, Global Centre of Excellence GCOE, Center of Sustainable Urban Regeneration CSUR, Section D  internal grant-in-aid, competitive

    Project Year :

    2011.04
    -
    2013.04
     

    Takefumi Kurose, Christian Dimmer

  • Urban Commons, Community Innovations and Social Resilience for Deep Adaptation

    self-sponsored  self-sponsored

    Project Year :

    2013.01
    -
    　
     

  • A Political Economy of New Public Space in Urban Japan between Public Process and Private Influence

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows

    Project Year :

    2008
    -
    2010
     

    Yoshimi Shunya, Christian Dimmer

  • Renegotiating Public Space – A Historical Critique of Modern Public Space in Metropolitan Japan and its Contemporary Re-valuation

    Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology  Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) scholarship

    Project Year :

    2001.10
    -
    2004.09
     

    Christian Dimmer

  • Studying concepts of public space and surveying or new types of urban public space

    DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst)  Studienpraktika in Japan (Student internships in Japan)

    Project Year :

    1998.10
    -
    1999.03
     

    Christian Dimmer

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Syllabus

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Teaching Experience

  • Urban Studies, Transition Design, Place-making Theories and Urban Practices, Planning Theory, Social and Political Theories, Public and Private in the City, Urban Studies Methods, New Urban Commons, History of Urban Japan, Revisiting Jane Jacobs, Global Urbanism, Advanced Seminar, Thesis Supervision

    Waseda University, School of International Liberals Studies  

    2021.10
    -
    Now
     

  • Urban Studies, Transition Design, Place-making Theories and Urban Practices, Public and Private in the City

    Waseda University, School of International Liberal Studies  

    2016.04
    -
    2021.03
     

  • Urban Design Theories, Bachelor's, Master's, Ph.D Thesis Guidance, undergraduate design studio

    The University of Tokyo, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, Department of Urban Preservation Systems  

    2012.04
    -
    2016.03
     

  • Urban Design Theories

    Keio University, Shonan Fujisawa Campus, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies  

    2015.10
    -
    2016.09
     

  • Urban Commons, Modern Modulations of Public and Private in Urban Japan

    Sophia University, Faculty of Liberal Arts  

    2014.10
    -
    2016.09
     

  • Global Urbanism, Public and Private in the City, Sustainable Cities and Architecture

    Waseda University, School of International Liberal Studies  

    2010.10
    -
    2016.03
     

  • Urban Research Methods, Supervising Master's and PhD researches

    The University of Tokyo, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, Department of Urban Preservation Systems  

    2010.10
    -
    2012.03
     

  • 3.11 Design Studio: Post-disaster architecture and Urbanism

    Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design  

    2011.08
    -
    2011.10
     

  • Teaching Landscape Design Studios, Organising a study tour to Japan for Faculty of Architecture, Urban and Environmental Planning, Civil Engineering

    Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Faculty of Architecture, Urban and Environmental Planning, Civil Engineering, Laboratory of Green Space Planning  

    1999.04
    -
    2001.09
     

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Social Activities

  • Alliance for Humanitarian Architecture

    Senior Advisor 

    2016.01
    -
    Now

  • Open Architecture Collaborative, Tokyo Chapter

    Co-Founder, Co-Director 

    2016.03
    -
    2018.03

  • Tohoku Planning Forum, TPF2

    Co-Founder, Co-Director  （Tokyo, Ishinomaki, Kesennuma, Rikuzentakata） 

    2011.11
    -
    2016.12

  • Architecture for Humanity, Tokyo Chapter

    Co-Founder, Co-Director 

    2011.06
    -
    2016.03

  • Teach 3.11

    Multimedia Editor  Teach 3.11 website 

    2011.03
    -
    2012.03

  • #Quakebook

    Member of translator team for the German Issue of the book 

    2011.03
    -
    2011.06

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Sub-affiliation

  • Faculty of Science and Engineering   Graduate School of Creative Science and Engineering