Urban color mapping in Tokyo: the case study of Hillside terrace

To establish a method to clarify the color image of the city, this study explores the colors of Tokyo from two approaches. The first survey is conducted by extracting colors from aerial photographs, to investigate how the landscape in Tokyo has greyish color impression and which kind of grey it consists of. In the other examination, the changes for over thirty years in the colors and materials of the building facades are visualized in the study site, which is a group of buildings in Hillside Terrace in an area of Tokyo designed by world-renowned Japanese architects. Both macroscopic perspective and chronological microscopic viewpoints are effective to grasp the color image of the city. The visualized urban color images enable to express the mood of the city.