Creative Milieux of Fashion and Reuse in Tokyo, Bangkok and Singapore

Abstract

This paper explores bottom-up urban regeneration in Tokyo, Bangkok and Singapore. It looks at the contribution of specific local creativities which, in association with an increasingly popular practice of the reuse of existing urban artefacts, provides a critical contribution to local urban culture. These synergies between reuse and local creativities seem to be capable of generating alternatives to the dominant development trends. Those alternatives promote the local, the ordinary and the banal to the benefit of urban quality. A specific focus of the paper is on requalification of existing places by bottom-up fashion-related activities.

Funding

This work was supported by the Singaporean Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund under Grant WBS: R -295-000-060-112; National University of Singapore, School of Design and Environment Start Up Grant under Grant WBS: R -295-000-060-133; and Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Fellowship 2010.

Notes

^1. In situations like this, the term requalification is used, as it implies the processes broader than those of physical regeneration, revitalization or reuse. The term has recently started to gain currency and is gaining relevance in the fields which include but are, significantly, not limited to urban design and architecture discourse (for example, IAPS 2009 - CSBE Housing Network Conference “Revitalizing Built Environments: Requalifying Old Places for New Uses” in Istanbul or in Turgut, Lawrence, and Kellette 2010 (eds.) Open House International vol. 35 No. 4 (Culture, Space and Revitalisation: Strategies and Experiences of Urban Renewal and Transformation).