Fieldwork1044.THE CITY BUILT INTO THE HILLSIDE

CONCEPT Kobe is a city shaped by the steep terrain of the Rokko Mountains. Rivers, stone embankments, retaining walls, stairways, houses, apartment complexes, and railways form an urban landscape closely connected to the natural topography. Through architecture and civil engineering, people have continuously created places to live within this challenging terrain. The film moves from the Sumiyoshi River to Tadao Ando's Rokko Housing complex, and then to the hillside residential neighborhoods surrounding Maruyama Station on the Kobe Electric Railway. These locations reveal two distinct yet interconnected forms of urban development: spaces deliberately designed by architects and environments gradually shaped by the everyday lives of their inhabitants. The final sequence, filmed in Higashiyama Shopping Street, introduces the commercial environment that supports daily life within this hillside city. Through static compositions and observational cinematography, the film examines the relationship between urban form, natural terrain, architecture, and human habitation.