Heatherwick Studio has released a new batch of project images along with an announcement of the long-awaited completion of their Azabudai Hills mixed-use district in Tokyo.
The multi-billion dollar project for Mori Building Co. Ltd. culminates a 30-year regeneration process in the heart of the city’s Minato ward with a new 20-acre design that features two temples, office and retail components, residential buildings, a school, and 5.9 acres of open green space for public use.
In a press announcement, Neil Hubbard, partner and Group Leader at Heatherwick Studio, said: “Over the last 10 years, we have tried to get under the skin of what makes something distinctively Tokyo, whilst at the same time, adding something new that’s fresh and soft to its modern built environment. We wanted to create vistas full of variety and intrigue and spaces to explore. It’s a confluence of different families of design all brought together in one place. I can’t wait to watch people explore it.”
The studio’s founder, Thomas Heatherwick, added: “We were inspired to create a district that connects with people’s emotions in a different way. By combining cultural and social facilities with an extraordinary three-dimensional, explorable, landscape, it’s been possible to offer visitors and the local community somewhere to connect with each other and enjoy open green public spaces. This is a joyful and unique public place for Tokyo, designed to be cherished for many years.”
The project includes Heatherwick Studio’s first-ever K-12 design, the 161,500-square-foot British School in Tokyo. The new Japanese operation of the Pace Gallery, designed by Sou Fujimoto, is also included in the scheme. Pedestrian pathways will combine as one network that includes walkable rooftops. A new central square finally anchors the district, completed by an event space called The Cloud.
The project expects to become one of the world’s largest urban developments to receive the preliminary WELL certification, a LEED Neighborhood Development certification for mixed-use developments, and the LEED BD+C (Building Design/Core and Shell Development) category certification.
5 Comments
Boring.
(iykyk)
"Over the last 10 years, we have tried to get under the skin of what makes something distinctively Tokyo, whilst at the same time, adding something new that’s fresh and soft to its modern built environment."
What, exactly, says Tokyo here, or Japan? This speaks more Heatherwick than anything else, whatever world he inhabits.
Soft?
My regret is that we didn't get to see what some of the leading Japanese architects might have come up with.
Design so hot, it melted.
Their work is just so ... grotesque. The Heatherwick MO is clear by now - find something cute in the palm of your hand and blow it up 1000x. Materials and details will be scaled up accordingly.
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