With great pleasure I can announce that Routledge is satisfied with the sales numbers for 2018 and decided to bring out the paperback much earlier, already one year after the hardcover (normal are 18-24months). Imai, Heide (2018) Tokyo Roji: The Diversity and Versatility of Alleys in a City in Transition https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781317363651
Paperback: 9780367140991 Hardback: 9781138949102
ABOUT THIS BOOK The Japanese urban alleyway, which was once part of people’s personal spatial sphere and everyday life has been transformed by diverse and competing interests. Marginalised through the emergence of new forms of housing and public spaces, re-appropriated by different fields, and re-invented by the contemporary urban design discourse, the social meaning attached to the roji is being re-interpreted by individuals, subcultures and new social movements. The book will introduce and discuss examples of urban practices which take place within the dynamic urban landscape of contemporary Tokyo to portray the life cycle of an urban form being rediscovered, commodified and lost as physical space.