人間的な更地

延々と続く更地の風景を都市部では見かけない。そもそもそのような広い更地を見かけることがない。更地があれば何かの事業用地で、いつのまにか何かの建築で埋まる。

子供の頃の西新宿、まだ都庁どころか今の超高層ビル群が無かった頃の広い空き地が記憶にある。超高層ビルを下から見上げるのも、上に上がるのも好きな子供だった。今は当たり前の超高層建築の設計に携わると現実的な見方しかしなくなる。

人間的なスケールを逸脱している更地には、ヒューマン的な人間性は感じられず、人間のためとしつつ、より効率良くからより速く、より高くが導き出され実行される。だから非人間的だと思ったけれど、よく考えたら、より効率良くも人間の欲望の果てだとしたら、とても人間的であり、その効率の中にいるから人間であると思った。

"Human vacant lot"

You can't see the endless landscape of vacant lots in urban areas. In the first place, I do not see such a large vacant lot. If there is a vacant lot, it will be a business site, and it will be filled with some kind of construction before you know it.

I remember Nishi-Shinjuku when I was a kid, and a large vacant lot when there were no skyscrapers today, let alone the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. He was a kid who liked looking up at skyscrapers from below and going up. Nowadays, when I am involved in the design of skyscrapers, which is commonplace, I have only a realistic view.

Human nature is not felt in the vacant lots that deviate from the human scale, and while doing it for human beings, more efficient, faster, and higher are derived and executed. So I thought it was inhuman, but when I thought about it, if it was the end of human desires more efficiently, I thought it was very human and I was human because I was in that efficiency.