TOKYO, ANTI-DISASTER CITY

In Tokyo, the shadow of earthquakes and their devastating fires has hovered over the city since its founding, but it has become darker since the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and longer since the American bombings during the Second World War. For this powerful reason, the creation of a safe city prevails as the vital key of the city's construction. In this article, the urban mechanisms, which impose a slow transformation process of the city, used to fight against the urban vulnerability are studied aiming to keep its almost ten million inhabitants out of harm's way. The methodology used consists of a scaling analysis of the city from top to bottom. From a wide view of the city of Tokyo, the study descends to Setagaya City and finally approaches Taishido District, last step of the urban project. This article is a summary of nine short texts and an epilogue which, along with their respective ten graphic documents, build the body of research. Thus, the readers are faced with a graphic essay made up of short chapters which will immerse them in the devastating events of the urban past of Tokyo and will shed light on a promising future.