Archinect - News

Snøhetta launches national park regeneration project in Japan

2024-04-26T11:57:00-04:00

Snøhetta has announced a new regeneration project with the Japanese private environmental agency BOND. The scheme for a yet-unnamed national park has several planned outcomes aimed a different social and environmental issues in Japan, which is experiencing a crisis of aging and still recovering from damages caused by seismic events in January and throughout the course of the last decade.

In a social media post, Snøhetta says: “Our masterplan will strengthen the relationship between earth, people, and nature, while beginning to heal and restore the scarred landscape to its original state of biodiversity and natural richness. Eco-concepts for health, wellness, and educational facilities are woven together with active public spaces spread across the park. This ecotourism development is the first step in furthering BOND’s vision of linking top stakeholders, government agencies, and locals to offer sustainable solutions for some of the long-term challenges facing the country.”

The firm h...

Makoto Yamaguchi completes Tokyo gaming headquarters with slanting walls and video game metaphors

2024-04-17T11:43:00-04:00

Japanese practice Makoto Yamaguchi Design has completed a headquarters for a game production company in Tokyo inspired by video game elements.

Facing the site of an elevated railway where trains pass on average every 1.5 minutes in both directions, the scheme is defined by slanted walls in response to environmental elements such as light, wind, and sound.

Image credit: Koichi Torimura

Across the building, every slanted wall height is optimized according to the requirements of each floor. The third-floor walls, for example, are increased in height to prevent recording studios from being impacted by external noise. Meanwhile, the height of the slanted walls decreases as the scheme rises to open views of the surrounding city.

Image credit: Koichi Torimura

“The slanted walls protect the interior from the external gaze, making it impossible to tell what the building is for from the outside,” Yamaguchi explains. “Not being able to see the purpose is much the sa...

Sou Fujimoto shares new photos of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai master plan under construction

2024-04-01T15:46:00-04:00

Sou Fujimoto’s studio has shared new construction images of the forthcoming Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai's The Grand Roof circular wooden container structure, a year ahead of the start of the six-month fair, which begins on April 13th, 2025.

The enormous structure is 1,969 feet (600 meters) in diameter and will serve as the main circulatory route for the exhibition, which includes 161 total participating countries/locations.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sou Fujimoto (@sou_fujimoto)

Fujimoto’s team says their design is meant to evoke a sense of "Unity in Diversity" and takes the Stage of Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto and other historic examples of Japanese timber architecture as its inspiration.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sou Fujimoto (@sou_fujimoto)

It will support an aerial walkway that affords visitors sightlines into the arena-like layout encased on the manmade Yumeshima island below and divided into three zones (Pavi...

Pelli Clarke & Partners opens Mori JP Tower, Japan's new tallest building

2024-03-18T13:56:00-04:00

Pelli Clarke & Partners has shared news of their completed work on the Mori JP Tower project inside the Azabudai Hills District in Tokyo. The new tallest building in Japan is a 64-story mixed-used design complementing the two other high-rise structures included in the redevelopment district and was completed last fall at a total height of 330 meters (1,082 feet).

“Mori JP Tower, and with it Azabudai Hills, is among the first buildings visitors see upon arrival to Tokyo, creating a new center and landmark for the city,” Mitch Hirsch, Partner at Pelli Clarke & Partners, said in a project announcement of the scheme. “To design a tower of this significance in a city renowned for its unique skyline is a privilege.”

Photo by Jason O'Rear

The building is designed to evoke the symmetry of a lotus flower form, clad in a distinctive pearl-grey glass curtain facade and topped by a crown made from four separate curved glass pedals.

Photo by Jason O'Rear

Photo by Jason O'Rear...

Fluent in Japanese? Here’s a job opportunity to work on high-end retail projects for Japanese clientele

2024-02-28T12:48:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Design Research and Teaching Fellowship at Northeastern University, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Retail Architect with Japanese language skills at O’Neil Langan Architects.

The role, based in New York, calls for an individual to work on high-end retail projects “with an emphasis on Japanese clientele” with the firm therefore noting that “Fluency in Japanese is critical for this role.” Among the responsibilities for the role are project development from schematic design to construction in the retail sector.

Sephora flagship store by O'Neil Langan Architects. Image courtesy: O'Neil Langan Architects

Why the role interests us

The O’Neil Langan role’s emphasis on Japanese fluency offers us the opportunity to look back at some of the intriguing recently completed architecture projects in Japan to be profiled in our editorial. Last month, for example, we covered t...

Trahan Architects unveils U.S. pavilion design for Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai

2024-02-08T15:06:00-05:00

Trahan Architects has unveiled its USA Pavilion design for World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. The county’s official entry will play host to a slate of exhibitions designed to showcase American scientific exploration and entrepreneurship and will be completed by an official project team that includes HOOD Design, Dot Dash, and several other specialty studios.

Chicago's former Mayor and the current U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, says it will stand as "an embodiment of American spirit." Organizers are expecting approximately 30 million visitors.

Image: © Trahan Architects

Visitors will pass through a ringed wall that surrounds the Expo before entering the pavilion, which is separated into two wings that are connected via a suspended cubic form serving as a skybridge.

Image: © Trahan Architects

Exterior LED screens installed on its facade will broadcast scenes of America’s urban and natural landscapes. The project reuses steel, HVAC systems, and tensile fabric used in structures o...

Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati unveil France’s pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka behind curtain facade

2024-01-12T14:46:00-05:00

A team comprising Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati has unveiled their design for France’s national pavilion at World Expo Osaka 2025.

Titled ‘Theatrum Naturae,’ meaning ‘Theatre of Nature,’ the pavilion is inspired by France’s natural landscapes, with a “looping narrative path” that suggests “new entanglements between humans and other forms of life in our cities.”

Image credit: Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati

The pavilion features a single pathway that guides visitors through three experiences: Ascent, Discovery of Nature, and Return to the Ground. The experience begins with a staircase that winds to form an observation balcony. The staircase weaves in and out of the pavilion’s porous curtain facade, offering views of the building’s interior before culminating at a heavily vegetated terrace.

Image credit: Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati

“The French Pavilion invites visitors to enter the theater of life,” said Coldefy founding partner Thomas Coldefy about the scheme. “Both actors...

Shigeru Ban and the Voluntary Architects' Network pitch in on earthquake relief efforts in western Japan

2024-01-11T16:58:00-05:00

Shigeru Ban and the Voluntary Architects' Network (VAN) are once again in action deploying their patented Paper Partition System in the wake of the recent 7.7 magnitude quake that struck western Japan in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

The indoor privacy system that the Pritzker Prize winner first devised in the late 1980s and deployed later in response to the 1995 Kobe earthquake was installed recently at a gymnasium in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. The Prefecture is currently home to an estimated 26,000 shelter seekers, according to local reports.

Image courtesy Voluntary Architects' Network via Facebook

The VAN’s response is thus critical towards bolstering local relief efforts in the area that continues to suffer damage as a product of the more than 60 smaller quakes that have continued as recently as two days ago — potentially displacing hundreds or even thousands more.

Image courtesy Voluntary Architects' Network via Facebook

A TED talk featuring Ban’s description of the t...

Minimalist concrete apartments fill a narrow site in Tokyo, designed by Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture

2024-01-05T12:30:00-05:00

Tokyo-based Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture has completed a residential scheme in the western part of the Japanese capital defined by an exposed concrete structure on a constrained site. According to the designers, the three-unit scheme “emphasizes maximal utilization of natural energy and pursues comfortable livability.”

Image credit: BAUHAUS NEO

Designed in collaboration with Kiz Architects and Hidetaka Gonai/Escenario, and completed in the winter of 2022, the project measures only 15 feet wide and 46 feet deep. Responding to the site’s narrow constraints, the scheme sees a single staircase linking four levels, “utilizing the space efficiently to ensure ample living areas.”

Image credit: BAUHAUS NEO

Image credit: Sherpa

The staircase is visually integrated into the living spaces, serving as both functional steps and display storage. In addition, the top floor incorporates a workspace counter atop the staircase to facilitate remote working for residents. Elsewhere...

Toyo Ito donates early-career archive to the Canadian Centre for Architecture

2023-12-06T17:21:00-05:00

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) has just announced its acquisition of architect Toyo Ito’s early-career archive.

The trove entails drawings, models, and sketches related to his practice Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects (founded as Urban Robot) from 1971 until 1989. The CCA says the donation will help researchers establish a better through line from the 2013 Pritzker Prize winner's early-career work in dialogue with its other archival holdings. The decision was made in September after 82-year-old Ito apparently determined he could not find an “appropriate place” in his home country in which to store the collection, according to The Yomiuri Shimbun.

In a press announcement, Ito said: “The CCA is an architectural museum and research center I have the utmost trust in. Upon this donation, I received requests from many Japanese architects and researchers, asking if it is possible to keep those archives in Japan. However, I have the confidence that CCA offers unparalleled ac...

Heatherwick's Azabudai Hills mixed-use development opens in Tokyo

2023-11-29T14:25:00-05:00

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.

Image: Raquel Diniz

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 explo...

A submerged Japanese library by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP as a ‘tranquil place’ for reading and rest

2023-11-29T11:53:00-05:00

Japan-based Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP has offered a look inside their recently completed Library of the Earth. Situated in the Japanese city of Kisarazu, and completed in April 2022, the library is described by the firm as “the library for the farmers, plowing the fields on sunny days and reading books on rainy days.”

Image credit: Koji Fujii / TOREAL

Located in the corner of an active agricultural site, the scheme saw Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP transform a debris-laced plot into a “lush valley.” At the core of the project is a submerged library designed with the principle that “architecture should not occupy the cultivated soil layer but rather exist humbly under the flourishing of plants and microorganisms in the soil.”

Plan credit: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP

Section credit: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP

“The earth has been regarded as the source of all life and a symbol of motherhood,” the team explains. “Our wish was to make a small cleft in the earth and create a tr...

OMA's new Toranomon Hills Station Tower opens in Tokyo

2023-10-27T13:48:00-04:00

OMA and Partner Shohei Shigematsu have shared new photos of their just-completed work on the Toranomon Hills Station Tower project for developer Mori Building Co. in Tokyo.

The first high-rise to be completed inside the studio’s larger Toranomon Hills mixed-use district overlooks the terminus of Shintora-dori Avenue, whose axis is extended through a split base containing a Metro station and shopping area. This creates an interface between city and the building that the architects say is essential to their design’s public character, an element that culminates in a top-level cultural center called TOKYO NODE.

Photo: Mori Building Co., Ltd, courtesy of OMA

Photo: Tomoyuki Kusunose, courtesy of OMA

In between the public elements, the total 873-foot tower contains 32 levels of office spaces, a hotel, and two restaurants. Users will approach via an elevated T-Deck pedestrian walkway that connects the site to the surrounding development. Base-level activities are extended vertically in a ban...

Construction begins on Japan’s tallest building, Torch Tower

2023-10-09T15:00:00-04:00

Construction has begun on the Torch Tower, set to be the new tallest building in Japan. The 1,280-foot-tall skyscraper is expected to be completed in March 2028 according to new reporting by The Japan Times.

The Torch Tower is one of four buildings to be constructed as part of a major redevelopment of Tokyo’s historic Tokiwabashi district. Led by developers Mitsubishi Estate, the design team involved in the master plan’s delivery includes Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei, Koji Matsuda, Sou Fujimoto, Yuko Nagayama, and Takanori Fukouka.

Hotel entrance. Image credit: Dorchester Collection

When completed, the Torch Tower will hold a luxury hotel operated by the Dorchester Collection, as well as a 2,000-capacity entertainment hall, offices, and an observation deck. While the hotel, offices, and rooftop observatory will be housed in the tower form, the entertainment hall and retail spaces will be located within a base plinth rising from a single below-ground floor to a sixth above-ground floor.

Ho...

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tokyo Imperial Hotel prepares for major expansion

2023-09-28T08:00:00-04:00

Paris-based Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects (ATTA) is moving forward with its plans for a major expansion of Frank Lloyd Wright's beloved Imperial Hotel in Tokyo following their selection as the project’s winning design architect in November of 2021.

The project will be the fourth such major overhaul of Yuzuru Watanabe’s original 1890 design and links Wright (who strove in his multiple renovations from 1923 onward to blend eastern and western motifs as much as possible) with the present-day and future development of architecture as a culture-bridging discipline.

Tane’s instincts for the project were based on his beliefs that the hotel should be returned to its late-1920s reputation as the “Jewel of the Orient,” a source of national pride, and an important cultural exchange. His team says they will utilize a “unique archaeological approach” that considers the many layers of history and typology present at the site while in the process of realizing their design for the new Main Buil...

'A home for tea and life': Japanese and Ukrainian influences blend harmoniously in this Kyoto house renovation

2023-09-25T12:25:00-04:00

Ukraine-based MAKHNO Studio has completed work on a residence in Kyoto, Japan inspired by “sado,” a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. The century-old dwelling has been refurbished with attention to its history and the preservation of authentic elements while “adding a drop of Ukrainian color to the Japanese context.”

Image credit: Naoki Miyashita

The experience begins at the house's entrance, marked by a small tea garden named “roji.” Adorned with Japanese ritual stones and Ukrainian DIDO art sculptures from the MAKHNO workshop, the roji garden sets the tone for a tranquil visit, whose “good entities protect the house from sad thoughts and uninvited guests.”

Image credit: Naoki Miyashita

Upon entry through the “genkan,” or entrance hall, guests are greeted by a collection of Japanese and Ukrainian art. The main living area, segmented by a traditional Japanese screen known as “byobu,” serves multiple functions, showcasing art a...

Sou Fujimoto designs Pace Gallery Tokyo expansion inside Heatherwick's Azabudai Hills development

2023-09-05T16:57:00-04:00

The new home of the Pace Gallery in Tokyo will feature interior spaces designed by Sou Fujimoto inside a three-story portion of Heatherwick Studio’s exciting new Azabudai Hills development, according to plans revealed today by the gallery.

The total 5,500-square-foot design includes some 3,000 square feet of exhibition spaces split between the first and second floors of the gallery. A third floor will also include a private terrace and sculptural garden connected to the landscape component of the 20-acre site, which sits prominently at the nexus of several other cultural destinations in the city’s busy Toranomon commercial district.

Rendering © DBOX for Mori Building Co., Ltd

The designer of the 2013 Serpentine Pavilion and Musashino Art University Museum and Library will deliver a space that is evocative of his personal explorations and approach to architecture.

Rendering © DBOX for Mori Building Co., Ltd

Pace says it has been interested in a Japanese expansion since at least the la...

Japanese company delivers 3D printed home ‘bought for the price of a car’

2023-08-17T11:42:00-04:00

Japan-based housing company Serendix has announced the completion of 'serendix50', a 3D printed house that forms part of the company’s mission of building homes that can be bought for the price of a car.

Image credit: Serendix

Serendix first made headlines in March 2022 with the creation of serendix10, a 3D printed home that was printed in under 24 hours. Having sold out the six editions of the home by October, the company undertook the design and construction of serendix50, otherwise known as the ‘barnacle model.’

Image credit: Serendix

The design of Serendix50 was primarily influenced by demand from older married couples seeking a home for their retirement years. The resulting 538-square-foot scheme, developed by a team including the Digital Manufacturing Creation Center, KAP, Tateo Densetsu, Hyakunen Jutaku, and Nabeju, was constructed in 44 hours and 30 minutes.

Image credit: Serendix

Serendix50 merges two digital fabrication techniques: 3D printing for the framework and CNC cuttin...

MUJI converts 100-year-old Japanese house into tranquil Airbnb stay

2023-07-27T12:56:00-04:00

Iconic Japanese design retailer MUJI is back on the residential market with details of its new MUJI Base Kamogawa home renovation project for Airbnb.

Located an hour and thirty minutes outside Tokyo in Chiba Prefecture, the new temporary stay inside the 100-year-old former Noda Printmaking Workshop offers amenities for up to five guests aligned with a naturalistic Satoyama lifestyle concept.

Image courtesy MUJI/Airbnb

Of course, the whole scheme comes decked out entirely in MUJI products. The brand synergy extends all the way down to toothbrushes, cookware, and other home goods curated from the MUJI product line. For $152 a night, guests also have the choice between pre-packaged MUJI meals and the reasonably-priced home delivery of produce from local farmers. Seasonal tours of the nearby Takahashi Melon Farm are available as well.

Image courtesy MUJI/Airbnb

The brand says it will soon expand the BASE concept to other cities in Japan...

This Japanese housing project utilizes regenerative architecture to support its natural surrounding environment

2023-07-10T18:37:00-04:00

Japanese regenerative architectural design studio tono Inc. has designed a sustainable residence noted for its positive impact on the surrounding environment.

Image: Rui Nishi

Located on the southern Japanese island of Yakushima, Sumu Yakushima applies regenerative architecture to reconceptualize the relationship between human habitation and the natural environment.

Image: Rui Nishi

The project’s design takes a holistic view of the surrounding river basin, mountains, and sea. It combines traditional Japanese civil engineering with contemporary technology.

Image: Wataru Aoyama

The key aims of the design included designing the underground environment, orienting buildings based on a thorough understanding of water and air flows through the landscape, and creating an ongoing connection with nature through architecture.

Image: Rui Nishi

Sumu Yakushima consists of several separate buildings that are organized in a layout that respects the pre-existing nat...

Sou Fujimoto's Ishinomaki Cultural Center offers a poetic space to a community looking to heal and remember

2023-06-22T14:48:00-04:00

Sou Fujimoto Architects has shared photos of the firm’s recent Maruhon MakiArt Terrace design in Ishinomaki, Japan.

The project sought to rebuild an important piece of the region’s cultural infrastructure that was destroyed by the devastating earthquake and tsunami, which claimed the lives of more than 3,000 local residents there on March 11th, 2011.

Image: © Masaki Iwata and Sou Fujimoto Architects

Responding to a brief that called for a revitalizing centerpiece for the city of 147,000, the design team created a 140,000-square-foot building that plays host to two 1,254- and 300-seat theaters, exhibitions areas, a public gallery, and learning spaces for a variety of different users.

A poetic linear arrangement is created as repeated gable ends combine with alternating “chimney-like” rectangular forms connected by a 170-meter (557-foot) long entrance lobby along the south orientation.

...

SFMOMA acquires Nakagin Capsule Tower pod

2023-06-13T19:37:00-04:00

A unique piece of architectural history is headed to America following the purchase of a remaining Nakagin Capsule Tower pod by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

The LA Times’ Carolina A. Miranda was first to report on the museum’s acquisition last week, which she said will join examples from fellow adherent to Metabolist architecture Fumihiko Maki and photographer Noritaka Minami (who documented his life inside the tower from 2010 to 2021) in the museum’s collection.

The A1302 capsule is one of just 23 preserved through the Tatsuyuki Maeda-led Nakagin Capsule Tower Preservation and Restoration Project and was personally owned by the building's architect Kisho Kurokawa himself, before his death in 2007.

Earlier on Archinect: Nakagin Capsule Tower capsules see new life following building's demolition in 2022

"It’s so rare to collect a 1-to-1 scale piece of architecture. It can fit inside, outside, and that’s phenomenal for us," the museum's architecture curator, Jennife...

Nakagin Capsule Tower capsules see new life following building's demolition in 2022

2023-06-09T15:11:00-04:00

The removal and restoration initiative was led by the Nakagin Capsule Tower Preservation and Restoration Project, which was established in 2014. The landmark building, a beacon for the Metabolism architecture movement, was demolished in April 2022.

According to TokyoArtBeat, "After the demolition, 23 capsules were removed and restored under the supervision of Kisho Kurokawa Architects and Associates, and since March, they have been transported to the new locations."

Previously on Archinect: The fate of Nakagin Capsule Tower's pods is getting a little clearer in Toyko

Two capsules are reportedly heading to a project called "SHUTL" by Japanese entertainment company Shochiku. They will be reimagined as creative spaces where contemporary artists can exhibit work, sell art and crafts, and use them for events.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by 中銀カプセルタワービル保存・再生プロジェクト/Nakagin Capsule Tower (@nakagin_capsule_tower)

Another company, Yodogawa Steel Works, Ltd., ...

A flexible Japanese nursery school that functions like a village

2023-06-07T15:12:00-04:00

Takeru Shoji Architects has designed a nursery school in Niigata, Japan, that forms a seamless connection between its rooms, the building, and the surrounding area. Called The Center for Early Childhood Education and Care, the school is dedicated to the principles of engaging “naturally with nature.”

The single-story wooden building was designed to establish a mutual relationship between it and the surrounding village, in which the village is involved in the children’s learning and play, and the nursery functions to revitalize the village.

A series of workshops, including childcare researchers and workers, parents, and local residents, was conducted to discuss the potential of hosting a school that would serve an area with an aging population and declining birthrate. The participants decided on a vision to create the nursery school to work like a village and for the village to function like a nursery ...

Heatherwick Studio details progress on Toranomon-Azabudai district in Tokyo

2023-05-15T12:20:00-04:00

Heatherwick Studio has shared new photos of their nearly complete Toranomon-Azabudai mixed-use district in the heart of Tokyo.

The 20-acre plan includes a new school, temple, shopping center, and a 64,583-square-foot central garden with room for 1,400 residences, 150 retailers, and capacity for over 20,000 office workers.

The studio devised a pergola-like facade system in order to give the construction a distinctive visual character while adding a “vibrant piece of urban topography” to the city’s patchwork commercial Minato Ward area.

Previously on Archinect: Heatherwick Studio begins construction in the Toranomon-Azabudai district in Tokyo

Heatherwick says they are taking a “human-centred approach by integrating nature into the public spaces.”

Once in operation, the district is expected to attract some 30 million visitors annually. The project broke ground in August of 2019. Tokyo’s Mori Building Company is the client. Construction is expected to be finished by the end of this year...

Heatherwick Studio’s first ever school features cascading terraces in Tokyo

2023-02-28T11:25:00-05:00

Heatherwick Studio has revealed the design for the first school project in the practice’s history. Situated in Tokyo, The British School seeks to be the largest international school in the city when it opens in August 2023.

The 16,000-square-foot scheme is spread across eight levels and features several landscaped outdoor learning and recreational spaces including on upper floors. The design team imagine the cascading outdoor spaces as social areas where teachers can work with the school’s 800 pupils, with planted balconies to be cared for by students.

Image credit: Heatherwick Studio

“Most inner-city schools don’t have enough playground space and the site was quite restricted,” explained Heatherwick Studio partner Neil Hubbard in a statement. “So we wedged playgrounds between each of the classrooms, creating outdoor learning spaces where pupils can explore and interact with each other and their teachers much more freely than in traditional school environments.”

“[The project’s] bric...

Kenzo Tange's 'Boat Gymnasium' in Japan faces demolition

2023-02-21T14:52:00-05:00

An important Kenzo Tange design is facing an uncertain future in Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture after reports that authorities there are moving forward with the demolition of his 1964 “Boat Gymnasium” over disrepair and an apparent inability to fund seismic structural upgrades.

The Brutalist structure in Takamatsu was first shuttered in 2014 and has since been the subject of preservation pushes that unsuccessfully pressured the government to save the building, which shares many of the same stylistic elements as his masterwork Yoyogi National Gymnasium built the same year for the Olympic games in Tokyo.

The news comes almost a year removed from the final fate of the Kisho Kurokawa-designed Nakagin Capsule Tower, which is now being disbursed piecemeal to private enthusiasts and public collections after a long back-and-forth came to a close with preservationists on the losing end.

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Bigjap (CC0 1.0)

The local Board of Education, which manages the gymnasi...

OMA’s first Tokyo tower takes a step closer to completion

2023-02-02T11:48:00-05:00

OMA has taken a step closer to the completion of its first tower in Tokyo, following the announcement that the Toranomon Hills Station Tower will open in the Fall of 2023. Part of the wider Toranomon Hills development, the mixed-use tower will reach 873 feet in height, and will hold offices, commercial spaces, hotels, and an interactive events facility named TOKYO NODE.

Image credit: OMA NY / Mori Building Co., Ltd.

The lower section of the tower is imagined as a “large funnel” designed to draw the public inward. The dominant architectural element of the tower’s base is the T-DECK, a large-scale pedestrian bridge that links the building to the broader development, and creates two public zones. The lower zone, dubbed the ‘Station Atrium,’ manifests as a three-story concourse which the design team believes “provides an exciting sense of arrival.”

Image credit: OMA NY / Mori Building Co., Ltd.

Above the base, the tower’s form is angled from several vantage points to create new sightlines...

Marc Newson unveils the final Tokyo Toilet project design

2023-01-25T13:44:00-05:00

World-renowned Australian industrial designer Marc Newson has revealed his contribution to the Nippon Foundation’s ongoing The Tokyo Toilet public design project.

Located in the capital’s tourist-heavy Shibuya ward, the Urasando toilet completes the project’s offering of 17 facilities placed across the commercial district beginning in 2020.

Photo: Satoshi Nagare, courtesy of The Nippon Foundation

The design for the public restroom was inspired by elements central to vernacular Japanese architecture. Using a copper Minoko roof common to tea rooms, shrines, and other rural spaces, the concrete structure’s form engenders a “subconscious feeling of comfort and peacefulness” while providing users with an accessible facility whose material selection will, over time, help it blend into the urban fabric of the neighborhood.

Photo: Satoshi Nagare, courtesy of The Nippon Foundation

As Newson explains: “It is important to me that the Toilet feels trustworthy and honest inside and out: The bright...

The fate of Nakagin Capsule Tower's pods is getting a little clearer in Toyko

2023-01-23T12:11:00-05:00

[Tatsuyuki] Maeda and other members of the nonprofit Nakagin Capsule Tower Preservation and Regeneration project saved 23 capsules, which now sit in a warehouse in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo. [...] Nakagin Capsule Tower is no longer, but Maeda is confident the restoration project honours the spirit of its creator. “Kurokawa intended for the capsules to adapt and change over time, depending on the environment, and if you think about it, this is exactly what is happening,” he said.

Maeda and his group had been fighting to have the tower properly restored before its demolition began last year. He told the Guardian: “[...] at some point next year it will be possible to see one of these pods in its original state somewhere in Japan.” Once it is, it will become the first among its former compatriots, which are supposedly forthcoming to yet-unnamed digital archives and public collections across the world.

Previously on Archinect: The Nakagin Capsule Tower pods… coming soon to a museum near you

“If one of the pods is left, then I could see myself putting it in a forest, or even inside my house,” he promised further. “But if that’s not possible, I’ll be happy just to be able to watch over them.”

Archinect - News

Snøhetta launches national park regeneration project in Japan

Makoto Yamaguchi completes Tokyo gaming headquarters with slanting walls and video game metaphors

Sou Fujimoto shares new photos of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai master plan under construction

Pelli Clarke & Partners​ opens Mori JP Tower, Japan's new tallest building

Fluent in Japanese? Here’s a job opportunity to work on high-end retail projects for Japanese clientele

Trahan Architects unveils U.S. pavilion design for Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai

Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati unveil France’s pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka behind curtain facade

Shigeru Ban and the Voluntary Architects' Network pitch in on earthquake relief efforts in western Japan

Minimalist concrete apartments fill a narrow site in Tokyo, designed by Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture

Toyo Ito donates early-career archive to the Canadian Centre for Architecture

Heatherwick's Azabudai Hills mixed-use development opens in Tokyo

A submerged Japanese library by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP as a ‘tranquil place’ for reading and rest

OMA's new Toranomon Hills Station Tower opens in Tokyo

Construction begins on Japan’s tallest building, Torch Tower

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tokyo Imperial Hotel prepares for major expansion

'A home for tea and life': Japanese and Ukrainian influences blend harmoniously in this Kyoto house renovation

Sou Fujimoto designs Pace Gallery Tokyo expansion inside Heatherwick's Azabudai Hills development

Japanese company delivers 3D printed home ‘bought for the price of a car’

MUJI converts 100-year-old Japanese house into tranquil Airbnb stay

This Japanese housing project utilizes regenerative architecture to support its natural surrounding environment

Sou Fujimoto's Ishinomaki Cultural Center offers a poetic space to a community looking to heal and remember

SFMOMA acquires Nakagin Capsule Tower pod

Nakagin Capsule Tower capsules see new life following building's demolition in 2022

A flexible Japanese nursery school that functions like a village

Heatherwick Studio details progress on Toranomon-Azabudai district in Tokyo

Heatherwick Studio’s first ever school features cascading terraces in Tokyo

Kenzo Tange's 'Boat Gymnasium' in Japan faces demolition

OMA’s first Tokyo tower takes a step closer to completion

Marc Newson unveils the final Tokyo Toilet project design

The fate of Nakagin Capsule Tower's pods is getting a little clearer in Toyko

Pelli Clarke & Partners opens Mori JP Tower, Japan's new tallest building