When Species Become Infrastructure: Aesthetics and Urban Biodiversity Planning in Tokyo, Japan

Recent scholarship has examined the aesthetic and political dimensions of infrastructure, showing how built systems shape perception, behavior, and environmental governance (Winner 1980, Rich et al. 2023). Yet these works have focused largely on non-living, grey infrastructures, leaving open the question of what happens when living organisms are deliberately used in the construction of urban infrastructure. In biodiversity-oriented Nature-based Solutions (NbS), plants and animals are not incidental elements of design but intentionally selected, arranged, and maintained to achieve ecological targets and aesthetic effects. 

What forms of visibility and meaning emerge when living organisms become infrastructural components within urban biodiversity planning? The analysis draws on insights from environmental aesthetics, STS, and works on the aesthetics of infrastructure, which together help illuminate how perceptual, cultural, and representational practices shape human understandings of ecological systems. Building on these literatures, I examine how NbS rely on distinct aesthetic frameworks that make certain species and vegetation legible, valuable, or emblematic within local strategy-making and implementation.

The research is grounded in long-term fieldwork and action research in Tokyo, conducted through direct involvement in the restoration and conservation of neighborhood-scale urban nature spaces. Through this work, I identify several aesthetic frameworks that shape how biodiversity is represented and acted upon: target species identified in local conservation and biodiversity strategies; iconic species that symbolize civic identity; mascot species, including stylized or imagined figures such as character mascots; and the aesthetics of vegetation, expressed through the textures, forms, and seasonal rhythms of rain gardens, planters, and spontaneous greenery.

These frameworks influence the development of local biodiversity strategy and action plan, guiding discussions about conservation priorities and shaping public expectations. They also structure the implementation of NbS, particularly stormwater-oriented interventions such as rain gardens, where tensions emerge between ecological ambition and aesthetic norms of tidiness, legibility,  anxieties about pests. They interact as well with debates around ecological nativism and concerns about invasive or exotic species, which often conflict with horticultural, landscape, and construction standards that favor non-local plants. By tracing these dynamics, the paper shows how aesthetic practices shape which forms of urban biodiversity become thinkable and actionable.