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.
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.
8 Comments
It looks really irrational, and not in a fun way.
That's a shame, on first glance. Manipulation of standard or conventional forms into other forms is (can be) fine, and part of what we (can) do. But this specific outcome appears literally a crestfallen downer-- droopy and morose.
Maybe it's brilliant in other ways?
It probbaly looked good as a scale model in Heatherwick's palm. We are talking about a studio whose architecture MO is blowing up small models into full scale buildings with little corresponding increase in detail or resolution.
Ahhhhhhh my eyes!
O Thomas Heatherwick, thy novel forms, Doth dazzle eyes and gather vast acclaim. Yet as I ponder on thy work, I see A flaw within thy grand architectural game.
Thine emphasis on spectacle and awe, Doth oft overshadow function's rightful place. Instagram's darling thou hast become, But hast thou built thy spaces with due grace?
For shallow are the depths of thy design, Like images confined to pixel's frame. Thy spaces, though impressive at first glance, Reveal their limitations, depth they claim.
Whilst capturing attention with each glance, Thy structures oft lack practical intent. The quest for beauty blinds thee to the needs Of those who seek a space with true content.
Thy novel forms, though striking to the eye, May age with fragility and discontent. Unconventional materials may fail, And leave thy structures weakened, their strength spent.
Architecture must endure the test of time, Adapting to the needs of future days. But in thy quest for instant gratification, Longevity and function seem but a haze.
So, Thomas Heatherwick, I must lament, Thy focus on shallow, Instagram's desire. Seek balance between form and function's need, And let thy designs inspire and aspire.
Havent visited toranomon for a long time. It is becoming a bit of a micro-centre, the same way roppingil hills was in the aughts. Tokyo is such a maximalist place that this project will certainly not be out of place. It barely stands out, frankly. If Heatherwick is able to deliver on the human scale that the renders promise then it could be a great place, especially since his project is made up of a group of buildings, not just one. I find myself grateful for that, as the usual route in Tokyo is to demolish massive blocks of generic housing and fine-grained mid/low-rise buildings and replace them with very large towers with massive floor plates. You can see that happening all over Nihonbashi if you ever get a chance to visit.
Mori (the developers) are intent on making places as much as floor area, and that is perhaps a better angle to look at this project from. It will plug into Toranomon hills next door and to the area around Tokyo tower just down the way (not incidentally where our office was located for several years). A great location with great street life. That the green space is supposed to be accessed vertically is a nice gesture as well. Let's see if it happens, and if it makes a dent in the devastatingly un-green landcape that is Tokyo. Landscape built up around human comfort and leisure is slowly coming back in Tokyo and maybe this will be a nice example of that.
So yeah, I guess if you only worry about form then this is a matter of I like it or I don't. But there is a lot more going on than just the literal rolling hills made by Heatherwick. Probably wont know if the design works or not until its been used for a few years, but the design is pretty good and is doing a lot of work for the city in the process. I would not dismiss it so quickly, especially based on a photo of construction in process.
by way of an update, i took a side trip to visit the development with one of my kids last week. Still not opened up to the public, but can see the effect of the building complex on the area.
Details are pretty good. A little heavy handed for my taste (probably the construction company, not Heatherwick deciding that), but the final outcome looks promising. The main difference from the images posted already is that the project is more clearly larger than one building and forms a couple of streets as well as being an object in the city. As urban plan it works pretty well by integrating with the cityscape and not setting itself apart as a superblock.
It's not the typical cacophonous Tokyo street, which is both a good and bad thing. From my point of view Maki's project in Daikanyama (a similar size project) might be stronger because it mimics the scale and messiness of the Tokyo landscape. But this is a nice effort at achieving some of the same feeling, with the addition of accessible green spaces on the roof (with shockingly unappealing but functional fences to get there).
FWIW, the OMA tower not far from this project is looking pretty good, if similarly out of scale with the context. Ingenhoven's project has a similar problem, even though it does add some greenery to the neighbourhood that is welcome
OMA
Ingenhoven
Thanks for posting these, Will.
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