"Moving micro office" has a kind of big brother: an architecture and town planning project proposal for existing vacant lots in the Mukojima and Kyojima neighborhoods. The 1 Tatami micro office I have been moving around with is a "shrunk" version of this proposal.
This page describes the concept of the "big brother project" more in depth ...
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background
The traditional small industry of areas like Mukojima and Kyojima, that once were the major force in Mukojimas and Kyojimas development, is in a rather bad state. If there is no new ideas and concepts that are able to revitalize this traditional power, the area might loose a main part of its positive identity.
To attract young people who are developing new business ideas, and to support their start up, could work like an incubator for the whole neighborhood. If this process is carefully managed it could bring new energy for the benefit of all inhabitants.
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concept
The concept is based on a mixture of software and hardware, or in other words: of program and form. The "micro office" project proposes to create a space for new small business in Mukojima. It should be developed in collaboration with a kind of town management or project management organization.
This "start up center" should encourage young people from the area, but should also attract people from other places. The tenants would become members in a kind of "start up center association" and so the whole project will have a kind of coop character.
I imagine that the micro office project offers basic services that attract young people, including a direct connection to the Internet, and basic commonly usable devices such as photocopy, printers, and such.
The individual space provided for each party should be minimal in order to allow for a dense diversity of different people with different ideas and approaches.
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architecture
The sites for micro office center might be divided into several areas that are used differently. One should be public green space, one a solid construction (may be including residential units for families or elders) and one area for the start up business.
For the start up business I imagine a rather temporary architecture as there will be the need for flexibility. This could make the concept also less dependent on high investments related to the high cost of land in the Tokyo urban area.
The flexibility for the start up center would be assured by a kind of high quality prefab units that can be extended or moved to another location, if the site is used for other purposes.
The spatial core of the project will be the "micro office platform", a semi public area to which the start up units face and that is the the place of social interaction; amongst the people of the center and between the center and the neighborhood.
A variation of this project uses a more decentralised network. The micro office units are put up on small lots around the neighborhood and linked to each other by a more virtual network.
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