The Future of the Metro IdeaJam: London and Tokyo

What have London & Tokyo got in common? Both are modern cities with Olympics experience. That AND the Gensler IdeaJam.

The IdeaJam forms part of Gensler’s Future of Metro Transport phase II research. This follows on from the success of the phase I research, which included the London Underline proposal that won Best Conceptual Project at the London Planning Awards in 2015. From Gensler’s phase I research, seven key themes, such as changes in operation, technology and retail in metro transport, were shortlisted using London Underground as a case study.

Key Trends for Metro Transport

Following the success of the phase I research, we decided to apply our findings from London to another metro system in another city, which needed to be similar to London in terms of experiences and metro infrastructure. As the world's most populous metropolis and host to the 2020 Olympics, we identified Tokyo as an ideal city for collaboration.

Our Tokyo office joined us to further explore the trends linked to digital signage, while the London office decided to investigate brand power. The fact that these two metropolitan cities have their own lifestyle and urban characters makes them a perfect duo to compare our findings, and with Tokyo lined up to host the 2020 Olympics, we believe our study will support Tokyo in understanding challenges and opportunities linked to hosting the event, and learn from the host experiences of London in 2012.

In order to find a way to best engage both offices, we hosted an “IdeaJam” in each city and invited the jury members on both sides to participate in an online roundtable discussion.

London vs Tokyo network comparison

What is the IdeaJam? How did it work this time?

The IdeaJam is an intense idea generating session with participants, usually from different academic institutions and professions, focusing on answering a challenge(s) put forth via a brief.

Spread over two weekends, academic participants included students from Royal College of Arts, City University, University of Nottingham, Central Saint Martins, London School of Economics and University of Greenwich. Professional collaborators included Digital Catapult and the University of Greenwich.

Starting on January 15, Gensler's London office conducted an early evening tour of Waterloo station, while the Tokyo office opted for an early morning tour of Shinjuku station the following day. This involved role playing activities, simulating potential station users with their needs and destinations, and giving participants a feel for how a large station is used through its peak hours and how different users use the space at the same time. From the immersion into the site, the teams quickly started to discuss the positives and negatives of the space and what opportunities were available to them.

The next morning, the participants formed their own teams for a rapid idea generating session, and listened to a number of short presentations on the future trends and fundamentals on art, transport, technology and urbanism. This was followed by another team working session, with comments by the collaborators. The teams conducted in-depth discussion about how they could focus their proposals, which went on for over 6 hours in Tokyo!

Gensler IdeaJam - Kizoa Online Movie Maker

On January 23, the teams met up again in Tokyo. By the afternoon, the Tokyo jury arrived: Yukimi Isoda of Japan Rail East, Daisuke Matsumura of East Japan Marketing & Communications, Yukiyo Nikuchi and Hideki Nishizawa of ARUP and Professor Senhiko Nakata of Miyagi University. The jury engaged in all three presentations, giving feedback to the teams.

The London team regrouped at Whitechapel Gallery a few hours later on the day and were joined by our London jury team: Peter Elliott of TfL, Niall Heally of CIAT, Gavin Hutchison of CLAWSA RIBA and Michal Szczesny of ArtFinder. On this final day, The Tokyo team kicked off the event by presenting their winning proposal via Skype. The London jury made some comments about the winning proposal, followed by a sharing session between both juries.

Roundtable discussion between London and Tokyo

The topics focused on three key areas within both cities’ transport network: (1) Wayfinding and Tourism – The Olympic effect, (2) Urban Development and Placemaking with urban transport hubs and (3) The offer to travellers in the tube journey or at the station.

The discussion began with the impact and importance of transport hubs in the growth and regeneration of cities:

“London stations were an important part of the transformation of London, as well as creating whole neighborhoods during the Victorian era. The recent transformation of Kings Cross St Pancras and the entire area around the station, and the current redevelopment of Stratford after the Olympics, has been huge success in London’s recent history.” –Nial Healy, CIAT

Shifting to the role of public and private investment, in Tokyo, we learned that:

“Japan rail was first a public, national rail then privatized in the 1980’s. The business model of JR adapted differently from the private. They established a hierarchy connecting the major cities in Japan, then developed a second infrastructure. However, the population centers that are connected have created much larger hub stations in comparison to London. In many instances, the stations themselves are like a neighborhood.” –Yukimi Isoda, JRE

“A driving force for improving transport in London is the population surge and need for new housing communities to support demand. However, in Japan, with a declining population, what is this type of planning being managed?” –Peter Elliot, TfL

“Peter’s observation is interesting. Even though Japan’s population may be declining overall, the population of Tokyo is increasing, and also shifting across areas of the city. Yet, technology with JR is improving with new Maglev trains, where most commuters will be living 2 hours away, in a remote location, but can get to Tokyo in 45 minutes.” –Yukimi Isoda JRE

When the conversation shifted to the journey experience in cities like London, the tube takes on its own cultural identity of the city. We are interested in finding out whether transport in Tokyo had a similar cultural impact:

“With the change and shift of population in Japan and Tokyo, it may possible that the meaning of the station, or the tube could change, perhaps turning a station into an art museum, or something. Already, changes in digital advertising are allowing for in train/journey advertisement and artwork to enter our everyday journey. Examples of this can be seen in some of the rapid transit trains.” –Hideki Nishizawa, ARUP

After the discussion, the London teams presented their design proposals to the jury. The jury deliberated to decide who the winners are for each challenge. After lunch, the judges made comments on each team and the two winners were announced.

Read part two of this blog series to find out who won the “Future of the Metro IdeaJam.

Trevor To is an award-winning architect in Gensler’s London office. Specialised in working with multi-disciplinary teams on mix-use projects, Trevor extends his collaborative edge to various trend and topical researches in the office. Realising the demand of metro transport in growing urban population in cities around the world as well as the need to renovate existing metro systems in developed nations, Trevor has spearheaded the first Firmwide research in Gensler on the Future of Metro Transport. The research utilises Gensler’s expertise in retail and hospitality to look at how changes in technology, operation and retail could bring exciting experience to metro journeys in future. Contact him at trevor_to@gensler.com.

Adam Phillips is a Senior Designer in Gensler London. He is focused on the macro and micro design process, from the ‘Ah Ha!’ idea, to finding ‘The devil in the detail’. He believes design has the ability to encourage interactions between people and places with the built and natural environment, while improving human experience, wellbeing and sustainability. He extends this type of design thinking to the opportunities in each project, which span multiple practice areas . Adam is also part of the Future of Metro Research Phase I and II, and award-winning London Underline team. Contact him at adam_phillips@gensler.com.