Thirty years after their first project in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, OMA has announced the completion of its plan for the Tenjin Business Center development that will bring a “new urban lifestyle” to the country’s seventh-largest city.
The center is the first realized part of the Tenjin Big Bang Initiative, which will create a sprawling, multi-use hub that’s meant to serve as a catalyst for Fukuoka’s transformation into a high-tech startup capital.
“It’s been a remarkable experience to build in my hometown where the city’s unique culture and identity are held close by its community, but in a moment of transformation catalyzed by an openness to new ideas and people,” OMA Partner Shohei Shigematsu, who is a native of Fukuoka, said in a statement.
Located at the intersection of two of the city’s most important thoroughfares, the new development is accessible by subway and features a shopping concourse and pixelated facade that helps to further articulate its place as a nexus for urban activity.
Per the architect: “The building program is predominantly workspace, within a given massing that is neither low-rise nor tower, so the design was conceived through hyper-focused interventions that subtly merge and connect human and urban scale.”
Workers in the mixed-volume building will enjoy panoramic views of the nearby Naka River and Hakata Bay thanks to setbacks integrated into the upper levels of the office development. Its softened corners and facade pixelation create a breakdown between the public realm and private office.
“The Big Bang signifies a starting point,” Shigematsu said. “I hope this gesture will be an invitation for future developments to participate in creating a network of activated intersections and public zones that knit the new district together.”
3 Comments
this is really nice! at first easy to say it looks like an imitation BIG design, but the facade design is quite thoughtful at close scale, and the interiors wonderfully bold. love the lighting under the pixelated volumes.
More than Bjarke somehow it reminds me of the now demolished Hanae Mori building by Tange in Omotesando (Tokyo). Or the Sogetsu Kaikan, also in Tokyo, by Tange (with the insanely cool interior by Osamu Noguchi).
had to look those up, totally agree. I wonder whether Shigematsu had them in mind. Tange's post-brutalist/metabolist work is underrated. His office did one of the nicest 90's era office towers in Chicago.
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