Kyoto Green Map
Kyoto, the spiritual home of Japanese, used to be an ancient capital of Japan for more than 10 centuries. As this city condenses Japanese culture, the Japanese phylosophy and the attitude to the nature can be found in the urban structure, the construction of shrines and temples, the lifestyles, etc. Although the "disruption of Kyoto and its nature" occurs everywhere recently, making effort toward eco-friendly society is our assignment as well as awakening.In 1997, Kyoto proudly hosted the 3rd United Nations conference on global @ warming (COP3) from Dec. 1 to 12.
We tennen design forum, the network of ecology-minded designers who hope to make contribution to environmental issues, made "Kyoto Green Map" for COP3.
Our activities were reported in 4 major Japanese papers, on TV, and radio, and we have also made an appeal for voluntees help through Climate forum Kyoto net, which is eco-network in Kyoto.
We are very happy to provide Kyoto Green Map to you as a first one in Asia.
IconsSome of Green map icons were made with Wendy on the occasion of the Tennen Design conference held in Kyoto such as special trees, bamboo forests, water feature, etc. In addition to basical green map icons, we have made special Kyoto icons as follows:
Newly designed icons
Reformed Machiya, or traditional house
We think Machiya is essentially constructed from ecological policies.
Every machiya in Kyoto is designed for the purpose of keeping cool in Summer like watering "tsuboniwa", or a stone walkway that leads back to the interior of the house. And rooms are measured by the number of tatami mats they contain, which determines the width and length of every house.
This uniform system of measurement allows for interchangeable tatami mat and fusuma or sliding doors in any machiya in Kyoto city. Also the materials are sustainable.
The movement to preserve culturally important machiya come from the citizens themselves, by remodeling the interior to suit the business. Therefore, we plot such machiya on the Green map by using eco-building icon with a little change.
Habitat of Hotaru, or fire flies and of Musasabi, or white-cheeked giant flying squirrel
These spots are indicated with newly designed icons because they show the environmental status of Kyoto although Kyoto has more than 1,400,000 population.
Flea market
Flea market, held in some temples , are very famous and covers a wide area;regional grown food, hand-made soap, and so on. Since information exchange is taken place between environmental groups at this market, we think that is ecological.
Viewing spots of Sakura, or cherry blossoms, and Momiji, or red maple leaves
Viewing Sakura and Momiji culturally symbolize the Japanese heart to nature,and many Japanese gardens and traditional ceremonies are based on such our habit of viewing.
The current icon of "Garden" shaped flower is not suggestive of Japanese garden.We made a icon for Japanese garden shaped pine tree. Japanese gardens are of foremost importance because their symbiotic arrangement of water, rocks,trees, etc.
Redesigned icons
Traffic zone
Since the current icon is signal-like mark, it needs to be redesigned to prevent misunderstanding by customers.
Health resources
In Japan, oriental medicine is very popular such as finger-pressure therapy,acupuncture, Chinese medicine, yoga, etc. Therefore, we use Oriental mark "In-yo" instead of the current hospital-like mark which may cause misunderstanding.
Opinions from Kyoto members
Abstract and concrete icons are mixed on the Map, we propose to make them on the same level.Because of different cultures between us, there are some icons we hardly understand, and hardly find equivalent icons to original meanings. For example, we have no public forest like Central park in NYC. Though there are many forests in Kyoto, they are held sacred as temples and shrines perched upon at their foot and are responsible for care of these forest. Therefore,the sacred forests are plotted with cultural and historical resources icon.
The current icon of "Garden" is not suggestive of Japanese garden.
The icon of "On road bike paths" and "Traditional way of life" need to be improved.
We have made definitions on "Green Products", "Strictly Green Store" and "Partly Green Store":
Green products Green shop having green products with green theme like Bodyshop, shops specializing in bamboo, reed, etc. Strictly green store None Partly green store Stores carrying out 4 items at least given below;
collecting tray,collecting milk carton, collecting pet. bottle,collecting cans,collecting glass bottle, and encouraging to bring house bag to reduce shopping bagRecycle shop is indicated in detail what kind of recycled products they have.
Kyoto Traditional Crafts shops will be put on the Map if they have ecological policies.
At the COP3 in Kyoto, we had exchange workshop of Kyoto Green Map at the open space on Dec. 6 for environmental exchange among NGOs from all over the world.
Your valuable comments are always welcome. tennendesign director Misako Yomosa
yomosa@mbox.kyoto-inet.or.jp
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