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Hello from our little single stair flat in Ueno

6 units. 1 per floor, a small stair and tiny elevator - and a small pub on the ground level

Fine grained small frontage urbanism. No min frontage req, no parking min, single stair.

Exterior stair similar to vancouver’s code (but taller than 6 storey)

Very limited space used for parking

Full use of the space under the train deck

20km/h local streets blend ped / bike / car. Lots of seniors on bikes cruising by.

I love the small scale restaurant / brewery / shop scene (in the small streets with small buildings)

In the building we’re staying in the stairs, landings and elevator are all small - too small for real accessibility - but the layout is very simple

The travel distance is short and the occupant load is very low with 1 unit per floor. I’ll have to go up to the top to see what kind of smoke control system is used.

Bike share system (Though this is the only one we’ve seen so far)

Lots of 10’ to 15’ wide buildings. Steel moment frame. Minimal envelope compared to Vancouver.

All of BC’s population would fit in this photo

A bit taller than the CN tower

Light show

There’s actually a lot of bike share - it’s just more compact / hidden.

5 storey elementary school with ball park / playground on the roof and city park adjacent. Large central daylit stair.

@juliaboyledavidson.bsky.social is every bit as excited about small footprint single stair buildings (or so she tells me)

Lovely meandering ride on the Luup share bike to see the Mineral House

No, really, this municipal building is massive

Shibuya crossing (early in the day so not too much ped traffic)… but definitely feels like a triumph of shoes over engines. Actually the whole city is like that. Less car traffic than Vancouver.

I found it interesting in Tokyo, I stayed in the Ginza area and even though the main streets had like 6+ lanes, the crosswalks were huge, there werent many cars and drivers would actually patiently yield and wouldnt try to race through, even at uncontrolled intersections on side streets.

The cooling system is the size of an apartment building