Formation process of small office building clusters in the inner-city of Tokyo: Toward utilization of aging office buildings

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K18187
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Town planning/Architectural planning
Research Institution	Waseda University
Principal Investigator	Yamamura Shu 早稲田大学, 理工学術院, 助教 (20732738)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,120,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥720,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Keywords	オフィスストック / 都市計画 / 事業所立地 / 中小老朽化オフィス
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Clusters of small office buildings were extracted in the 23wards of Tokyo and the environmental characteristics of these areas were analyzed with statistical indicators. As a result, small office building clusters were divided into five typical patterns. Also, the following three factors were extracted as major conditions for continuous utilization of small office buildings: (1)"Physical conditions" such as the distance from the city center and the hardware functionality of the buildings; (2)"Business conditions" such as the quality of maintenance, attributes of the tenants, complexity of the immovable property rights; (3)"Market conditions" such as affordable pricing. From interviews with local real-estate agents, the existence of affordable office supply was regarded, in all clustered areas, as a major factor which attracts small service businesses to the area which implies that small office buildings may function as “nursery beds” for incubating small businesses.