The Geographical Study of Underground Space at Yokohama Station

Abstract

While the vertical differentiation of urban functions has advanced in Japanese cities since the 1960's, the underground has been utilized as new space for retailing, parking, and public street. The underground shopping space connected with the basement of high-rise buildings has been constructed in such large cities as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Yokohama. The purpose of this study is to analyse characteristics of the underground space use in front of Yokohama Station from the horizontal viewpoint.
The result of this study is summarized as follows:
(1) The underground space is located both in the west and east of Yokohama Station. The western area consists of an underground shopping space and the basement of thirteen high-rise buildings, and an underground shopping space and a high-rise building's basement constitute the eastern area.
(2) The underground space, constructed through the municipal urban planning and managed by management companies, is tenanted by many specialty shops.
(3) The underground space is relatively differentiated by the type of bussines (Figure 6). For example, shops dealing with clothes are located along the main streets, and restaurants tend to occupy the edge of the underground space.
(4) The flow of pedestrian has two types in the underground space. One is radial and the other is circular. The underground space in the western area has both types, while that in the eastern area has radial. The flow of pedestrian is influenced by the arrangement of underground facilities and by the location of railroad stations and bus terminals.
(5) At Yokohama Station, the underground space is regarded as new space for retailing in urban functions.