Tokyo as metropolis of trends

How we grasp changes? How can we recognize future trends, in the present? Where can we observe socio-cultural changes? At what extent can they be generalized?

Considering that people living in metropolises and cities are made up of over 50% of the world’s population, an analysis of metropolitan lifestyles and of socio-cultural changes, becomes extremely important. A research carried out in the 1980s by Hakuhodou Total Life Research Laboratory studied the behaviour trends in Tokyo, in order to apply the results to the creation of economic development and marketing strategies. According to the study, the city is a pulsing centre of novelties and innovation. Knowing the city means perceiving the future and, therefore, the future behaviours on its inhabitants. The study also proposed three methods for analysing the city: a permanent and continuous one, a periodic one and finally a system of comparison.

The first one, known as the ‘Akechi method’, is named after the television character Kogoro Akechi, a detective, created by mystery writer Edogawa Rampo. It consists in analyzing the city through feelings and curiosity. It is a sensational experience that allows the observer to guess new trends in behaviour and thought: listening to conversations and observing unusual situations allows the researcher to understand social changes afoot as well as expectations, through a very detailed analysis of small phenomena in some metropolitan areas and sorts of people.

The ‘Hikoboshi (Altair) method’ takes the cue from the fact that Hikoboshi and Orihime (Vega) meet in the Milky Way only once per year: the seventh day of the seventh month, according to the Chinese calendar, a day celebrated in Japan as the Festival of the Stars. A periodic observation of the city, especially of some of its pats featuring more social interaction, allows us to see changes that have influenced the city itself and the clearly visible in periodic analyses.

Finally there is the so-called ‘Gulliver method’ which provides a system for comparison: visiting, analyzing many areas of different cities with a special interest on particular aspects of it is possible to reach comparative results that allow to outline general trends that show changes and/or differences. The more familiar the city or metropolis of reference is, the more the comparative results are useful for recognizing real trends. Matthias Horsx, a scholar interested in German trends, claims that researching the trends of consumers “shows the desire of companies to make a critical comparison between themselves, their products, their strategies and changes in society, in work and culture afott, and to develop an evolutionary process that clearly distinguished an evolutionary process that clearly distinguishes it from competitors and projects the company into the future.” *

Many companies dealing with construction material are nowadays very interested in trends, which study is typical of the fashion, design and industrial product sectors. The architects/designer every day compares the social collective reality, thus becoming a point of reference for the customer, be it private party or a public body. The product, be it an object or simply a thought, soon leaves the research phase and enters into a complex arena that welcomes and rejects, gives judgements, returns, reacts. Knowing one’s own objectives, being able to understand the needs and to interpret requests; and also knowing how to propose, to set conditions – all these are fundaments requirements for a designer, who must also have a close relationship with the companies that can best understand these requirements. The realization of the project arises from these collaborations.

Another issue is the generalization of the trend. Avoiding excessive globalization, maintaining contacts with tradition, creating comparisons and contributing to changes. Research on social behaviours in metropolises is not enough to keep alive situation that are rooted in popular traditions. The identity of places and memories and the feeling of situation lost can determine new expectations and interesting research trends to draw inspiration from in order to develop creative projects. It therefore becomes important to study in depth the characteristics of small villages, festivals linked to tradition, customs and legends. Their re-interpretation in contemporary key often allows the discovery of new and innovative solutions with respects to present-day requirements and expectations. However it is here that one’s own roots and past are actually recognized, as well as the present and the natural projection into the future.

* from Wincor Nixdorf - Trends and research, 2008

- Revised article from a text written by Lorena Alessio for Mirage S.p.A.