In his latest contribution to Virtual Design Festival, architecture video blogger Martin van der Linden reveals some of Tokyo’s “invisible” waterways, which flow beneath the city’s roads and pavements.
“As many as 2,500 people cross each time the light turns green,” van der Linden said in the video, while stood at Tokyo’s busy Shibuya Crossing. “Few people know that right under here, the Uda and Shibuya rivers converge.”
Over 100 rivers, streams and canals run through Tokyo, but most of them have been built over or filled in over the past 60 years.
In Shibuya, the rivers were covered up as part of a major redevelopment of the area in the run-up to the 1964 Summer Olympics, which the city hosted.
“Tokyo has turned its back on its rivers and waterways,” van der Linden said. “The image of Tokyo as a city of water has long been forgotten.”
“Not only have the rivers been used as a base for roads in the years leading to the 1964 Olympics,” he continued. “Many small rivers and streams have been filled in.”
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