Apartment buildings form barrier against fire in Tokyo

Unfortunately, such walls of high-rise buildings also tend to block any wind from reaching the buildings on the other side, worsening the urban heat island effect, which is pretty bad in Tokyo. Something urban planners didn’t used to think about.

Depends on the prevailing wind, but the price of this fire is probably an increase in the local temperature far worse than any global warming, (and measurably happening right now) and higher energy bills for air conditioning for all the buildings over several square kilometers. That’s a LOT of kWh.

If the map is North = up, then it IS likely the buildings are blocking the prevailing west wind, cooled by the exposed river and park. Keep the park and river, lose the wall of buildings.

I agree, Level3.

A better fire-break would be to have a strip of open space somewhere in the middle of the building sprawl, or, better yet, such areas at regular intervals.

Are there passageways under the buildings? I can’t see how the people on the inside are supposed to get to the safe area between the apartments and the river.