The Urban Leaders Retreat Tokyo 2025 explored how Tokyo has evolved into one of the world’s most resilient, efficient, and livable megacities by integrating transit-oriented development (TOD), vertical mixed-use urbanism, and people-first planning.
Urban Leaders – Tokyo 2026 Reflections
Design Disruption: The Future of Workspaces
The COVID-19 Pandemic is a disruptive moment for our world, and it’s poised to spur transformative shifts in design, from how we experience our homes and offices to the plans of our cities. The webcast series Design Disruption explores these shifts—and address issues like climate change, inequality, and the housing crisis— through chats with visionaries like architects, designers, planners and thinkers; putting forward creative solutions and reimagining the future of the built environment.
EPISODE 2 will focus on the future of the office. Our guests will be Eliot Postma, partner at London-based Heatherwick Studio, and Verda Alexander, co-founder of San Francisco-based O+A. Postma is leading Heatherwick’s design for Google’s HQ campus in Mountainview, California; a flexible, permeable complex that is reimagining what offices can be. He has worked on projects for Heatherwick ranging from the transformation of the 14-acre Olympia London site, the Bund Finance Center in Shanghai, and Bateau, a futuristic riverboat on the Loire River in France. Alexander, winner of a 2016 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, has helped spearhead her firm’s creations for companies like Nike, Facebook, Microsoft, Uber, Slack, and dozens more. Her artistic initiatives have challenged the status quo in office design, and in 2018 she launched a small studio within O+A to work exclusively on experimental projects and unconventional interventions. She recently completed The Food for Thought Truck, a mobile design studio that took a team of designers on the road to work with local communities throughout California.
The series is co-hosted by New York-based architectural writer Sam Lubell, who has written ten books about architecture, and contributes regularly to the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Wallpaper, Dwell, and Architectural Digest; and Bangalore-based Social Entrepreneur Prathima Manohar, a contributor to The Times of India and founder of think do tank The Urban Vision. Our goal is to provide an international perspective, mixing guests from different continents. ArchDaily is the main media partner for this series.
Eric Gordon on Online Engagement Platforms for Local Planning Efforts
About: Community PlanIt is an online engagement platform for local planning efforts. Bringing together the interactivity of social networks and the incentives of online games, Community PlanIt transforms participatory planning into a fun, engaging activity for all ages.
Bio: Eric Gordon, PhD, Director of Engagement Game Lab, studies civic media, location-based media, and urban design. He is an associate professor in the department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College where he focuses on the design and research of digital games and social software that foster local civic engagement. He is the co-author of a new book about location-based media called Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World (Blackwell Publishing, 2011) and the author of The Urban Spectator: American Concept Cities From Kodak to Google(Dartmouth, 2010). Download latest CV here. Visit him at placeofsocialmedia.com.
Revival of the Public Realm: A Strategy to Transform Indian Cities
Legendary Urbanist Enrique Penalosa once said “Quality of life distribution is more important than income distribution”. We must invest in infrastructure that creates better quality of life for all citizens of the city. For example, 55% of the city of Mumbai walks as their primary mode of transit. Imagine the impact on daily life of citizens if the city invested into better public spaces and walkability.
While the master plans & vision plans are much needed .The idea that action should only be taken after all the solutions have been found is a sure recipe for paralysis. Tactics like placemaking / DIY urbanism is an important idea for such livability goals of a city. This cannot be achieved with a top down approach. We need to create frameworks so that we can realize this at the block / neighbourhood level whether in partnership with the local communities or businesses .Tactical Urbanism is a complimentary tool to a master planning process and quickly ensures liveability in your neighbourhood.
Building a Coalition for a better city
The space of city building & urban development is a much contested space with tense relationships between different actors like civil society, community, private sector & government. While this can be a sign of a well-functioning democracy; In India it really has reached a level which is highly unhealthy for the entire system. The placemaking approach to improving public realm is fundamentally built on a wide-ranging diverse collaboration between various stakeholders like creative groups, businesses , citizens, experts and academic groups in the city who are coming together to implement an action oriented project .
It emphasizes the point that it is in everyone’s interest to invest into the public realm to improve a place whether one is from the private sector, government, civil society or a local citizen. From our experience , The private sector patrons understand the importance of investing into the commons.
We have already started a movement of Privately owned Public spaces in India. Imagine the fabulous opportunities if we got the Market forces invest into what is often thought to be non-market interests in coalition with the large community – We could transform our Neighborhoods block by block.
While the master plans & vision plans are much needed .The idea that action should only be taken after all the solutions have been found is a sure recipe for paralysis. Tactics like placemaking / DIY urbanism is an important idea for such livability goals of a city. This cannot be achieved with a top down approach. We need to create frameworks so that we can realize this at the block / neighbourhood level whether in partnership with the local communities or businesses .Tactical Urbanism is a complimentary tool to a master planning process and quickly ensures liveability in your neighbourhood.
Building a Coalition for a better city
The space of city building & urban development is a much contested space with tense relationships between different actors like civil society, community, private sector & government. While this can be a sign of a well-functioning democracy; In India it really has reached a level which is highly unhealthy for the entire system. The placemaking approach to improving public realm is fundamentally built on a wide-ranging diverse collaboration between various stakeholders like creative groups, businesses , citizens, experts and academic groups in the city who are coming together to implement an action oriented project .
It emphasizes the point that it is in everyone’s interest to invest into the public realm to improve a place whether one is from the private sector, government, civil society or a local citizen. From our experience , The private sector patrons understand the importance of investing into the commons.
We have already started a movement of Privately owned Public spaces in India. Imagine the fabulous opportunities if we got the Market forces invest into what is often thought to be non-market interests in coalition with the large community – We could transform our Neighborhoods block by block.
Above: Case study of our Placemaking Program
Tokyo Urban Innovation Reading List
Recommended Reading List
We’ve curated a selection of readings that highlight Tokyo’s strides in sustainable urban development, resilience, and inclusivity.
Overview
· Tokyo’s Large-scale Urban Redevelopment Projects and their Processes
· What’s behind Tokyo’s massive redevelopment?
Mixed Use & Integrated Developments
· Tokyo, the Roppongi Hills, and Vertical Urbanism
· Tokyo Transformed: A Journey Through Urban Innovation
Tokyo Urbanism- Transit Oriented Development
· A case study focuses on Shibuya Station Development
· A Green Third Place is Born at the Gateway to Tokyo —Tokyo Station Yaesu Development
· Not Just a Train Stop: The Evolution of Transit-Oriented Developments in East Asia
· How Tokyo’s Transportation Network Massively Increase Real Estate Prices
Heritage Regeneration
· The Evolution of Ginza’s Urban Landscape
Urban Regeneration, Waterfront Development & Housing
· Takeshiba Area Urban Development- Tokyo Port City
· “The Big City Where Housing Is Still Affordable
· How Tokyo’s Public Housing Defined Japan’s Middle Class
Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City”
· Why Neighborhoods and Small Businesses Thrive in Tokyo
· Omotesando – The World’s Best Outdoor Modern Architecture Museum
· An Ode to Tokyo’s Public Toilets
Placemaking & Urban Revival
· Mitsubishi Estate and Marunouchi – Urban development will continue 100 years later
· From ghost town to weekend pedestrian haven: Marunouchi
· Why Marunouchi Has the Most People-friendly Urban Design in Tokyo
Inclusive Cities – Vanessa Dsouza
In this session , we speak to Vanessa D’Souza who works with women, children and public health and safety systems.
Vanessa D’Souza has served as CEO of SNEHA since March 2013, after a volunteering stint with SNEHA. Prior to that, she worked with Citibank India in various positions, her last role being: Director, Citigroup Private Bank. During her tenure with Citibank she worked across various divisions including Non-Resident Indian Business, Corporate Bank, Project Re-engineering and eventually with the Private Bank. She won the coveted Citicorp Chairman’s Service Excellence Award in 1989 for exemplary performance. She holds a Bachelors (Honours) degree in Economics and a postgraduate degree in Management with a specialization in Marketing. Vanessa pursued the Management Executive Development Programme at Stanford University, USA sponsored by Citibank. She also holds a postgraduate Diploma in Public Health Nutrition. She was a Dasra Social Impact Fellow in 2015 and attended their Leadership Programme for non-profit executives. Recently, Vanessa has been a recipient of the Mother Teresa Social Leadership Scholarship, to attend the Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management Programme at Harvard Business School in 2017.
Urban Manifesto – Sustainability Strategies
In this session on Sustainability Strategies we speak to Tara Gbolade, architect and co-founder Gbolade Design Studio and Julian Marwitz, Founder of Urbanomy, urban and energy planning consultancy.
RIBAJ Rising Star Winner, Tara is a Co-Founder of GDS. She previously worked at Mace Group and RG+P Architects, where she was responsible for the strategic organisation and growth of the company, while successfully leading exciting and challenging residential developments for private and public-sector clients. With her expertise in design and planning policy, Tara leads the Harlow & Gilston Garden Town Sustainability Strategy, and sits on a few Design/Quality Review Panels including; Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth, and Merton Councils – advising the council on major planning applications.
Julian Marwitz has studied law and sustainable urban development in Geneva, Hong Kong, Germany and at the University of Oxford. During his studies he founded several companies and worked in corporations such as Microsoft, Volkswagen, SAP and Allianz. Some of his major achievements include winning the largest startup competition for pupils in Germany, contributing towards a new legal convention for the UNEP and participating regularly at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Julian was formerly the Executive Assistant to the CEO of JLL in London and Development Manager of ECE, European market leader in shopping malls. He is passionate about sustainability, travelling, building technologies and the development of megacities.
Inclusive Cities – Rajeev Gowda + Julio Armando Guzman Caceres
In this session we speak with Rajeev Gowda & Julio Armando Guzmán Cáceres Mr. Gowda is an Indian politician and academician. He is a former member of parliament in the Rajya Sabha and a national spokesperson for the Indian National Congress. Julio Armando Guzmán Cáceres is a Peruvian economist, politician, and leader of the Purple Party.