Sapporo

Sapporo is the northernmost metropolitan city in Japan. The city boasts some nice green areas and is pretty vibrant. However, can current Sapporo attract double the number of residents and local/international visitors in 70 years' time? Our research found that Sapporo may not offer enough "fun" and "light" to attract this number of people. In order to address these concerns, the Sapporo team decided to introduce two elements which could help revitalise the city and increase the resident and visitor population at the same time.

The first element is a "mountain": we propose to introduce a mountain megastructure which replicates the mountains surrounding the existing city. Our research suggests that many visitors to Sapporo are actually attracted to the "fun" activities that are enjoyed in the surrounding mountain areas, so our team decided to borrow a mountain motif in order to attract tourists to the city.

The second element is a "lantern": the Sapporo team proposes to introduce lantern structures that can not only house "fun" activities such as cafes, museums and theatres, but also help to bring more "light" to the city, which is known to have the least sunlight hours of all of the major cities in Japan.

By introducing a mountain and floating lanterns to the city, we believe Sapporo will attract more residents and local and non-local visitors alike.