Local identity through low-rise compact city in Japan: In search of Zushi-ness

The author, an architect , urban designer and planner - a graduate of Waseda University, School of Architecture, Tokyo (B.A. Architecture), Harvard University, Graduate School of Design (M.A. Architecture) and the Graduate School of Ekistics, Athens Center of Ekistics, Athens, Greece - is currently Principal Partner, AUfì (Architecture- Urban Design & Research) Consultants, Tokyo, and former visiting Professor of Architecture, Waseda University. He is nationally and internationally known for the large number of architectural, landscaping and planning projects he has undertaken (for which he has received high order prizes and other distinctions), for his numerous publications, and for his teaching activities at universities in Japan, Australia and the UK. He is a member of the World Society for Ekistics and Japan correspondent of Ekistics. The text that follows is a slightly revised and edited version of a paper presented at the international symposion on "Globalization and Local Identity," organized jointly by the World Society for Ekistics and the University of Shiga Prefecture in Hikone, Japan, 19-24 September, 2005. He was a member of the Steering Committee for this symposion together with (in alphabetical order): Takashi Doi, Haruhiko Goto, Catharine Nagashima and Koichi Tonuma.