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CASE-REAL has completed a new residence in Tokyo, Japan. The two-story wood-frame home sits in a residential sector in the city center and contrasts the surrounding structures with its metallic exterior, made of galvanized steel. From the street, the home displays a gridded system of the... View full entry
Mitsui Fudosan and Takenaka Corporation are planning to build a 17-story wood-frame office tower in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district. With a proposed height of 70 meters, this would be the tallest wooden building in Japan. — Japan Property Central
Related: A much taller, 70-story wood-framed skyscraper was proposed by Sumitomo Forestry and Nikken Sekkei in 2018 to be built in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district by the year 2041. View full entry
THE TOKYO TOILET, an initiative launched by the non-profit The Nippon Foundation to create save, clean, and appealing public restrooms throughout Tokyo's Shibuya ward, just completed its latest facility: Jingu-Dori Park, designed by Pritzker Prize laureate Tadao Ando, features a simple, functional... View full entry
Noteworthy Japanese architects, and even some Pritzker Prize laureates, are among the creators of 17 innovative public restroom designs throughout the bustling Shibuya area of Tokyo. Launched by the non-profit The Nippon Foundation, THE TOKYO TOILET project hopes to create save, clean, and... View full entry
The coronavirus pandemic has forced the Olympics’s first postponement: Tokyo 2020, its name unchanged, will now take place in July 2021 if it takes place at all. Yet all around the Japanese capital is the legacy of another Olympics: the 1964 Summer Games, which crowned Tokyo’s 20-year transformation from a firebombed ruin to an ultramodern megalopolis. — The New York Times
NYT art critic Jason Farago takes a look back at the now iconic architectural and visual design — and its transformative power — of the 1964 Olympic Summer Games in the Japanese capital, 19 years after WWII had ended. "Those first Tokyo Olympics served as a debutante ball for... View full entry
This is the fifth installment of Archinect Sessions six-part series of conversations we've had with architects, designers, and others in the industry. The discussions address the challenges experienced navigating these uncertain times, from the stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus, to the... View full entry
Japanese-based firm Nendo has completed a novel three-story two-family home in Tokyo. With three generations of the same family sharing the space, the living quarters for the older couple is situated on the 1st floor, while the 2nd and 3rd levels house the younger couple and their child. ... View full entry
Veteran International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound told USA TODAY Sports Monday afternoon that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are going to be postponed, likely to 2021, with the details to be worked out in the next four weeks. [...]
“It will come in stages,” he said. “We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”
— USA Today
While the IOC has not responded directly to veteran member Dick Pound's statement from today, the Committee did signal its commitment to scenario-planning for "changes to the start date of the Games" yesterday amid new outbreaks of COVID-19 in IOC member countries. This development comes only days... View full entry
Construction of all new permanent venues for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics is now complete, organizers said Friday, as preparations continue despite worries over the new coronavirus outbreak.
The announcement comes as the International Olympic Committee insisted this week that a potential cancellation or postponement of the Games due to the virus was "not mentioned" at a meeting of their Executive Board.
— Japan Today
According to Japan Today, the last venue to be completed was the Tokyo Aquatics Center for swimming, diving, and artistic swimming. It will seat 15,000 fans for the Olympic and Paralympic games. "The main pool features a movable wall allowing the 50-meter facility to be converted into two... View full entry
Step into the newly reopened Okura Tokyo, and you might be forgiven for believing in the existence of time travel.
That’s because the lobby, where John Lennon or Steve Jobs might have relaxed when they stayed, was demolished four years ago, to the dismay of patrons of the iconic hotel. And now it’s back, seemingly plucked from the past. During the hiatus, craftsmen recreated and restored the gold-hued space adorned with discreet touches [...].
— Bloomberg
Bloomberg writer Reed Stevenson visits Japan's iconic and recently reopened Okura Tokyo (formerly Hotel Okura) after undergoing a substantial $1 billion makeover. Fearing that the unique and charming mix of 1960s mid-century modern and traditional Japanese architecture, especially in the lobby... View full entry
Intel is collaborating with NEC to provide "a large-scale face recognition system for the Olympics," said Ricardo Echevarria, general manager of Intel's Olympics program. The system is designed to let Olympics organizers "ensure smoothly secure verification for the over 300,000 people at the games who are accredited," he said. People using it will register with photos from government-issued IDs, he added. — CNET
Facial recognition will be used by the organizers to keep track of athletes, staff, volunteers, and other individuals involved with the event. The general public will not be involved in the effort. The 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo will mark the first time that the event makes wide-spread use... View full entry
The summer season is coming to a close, and fall is almost here. What better way to start the new season than by putting your skills to the test and gaining valuable experience at a notable firm? When making career decisions, it's important to find a firm that will help challenge you as a design... View full entry
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects (PCP) and Japanese "urban landscape developer" Mori Building have unveiled renderings for a new "modern urban village" slated for Tokyo's Minato City. PCP has designed the project's three towers, including the project's centerpiece, a 1,080-foot spire slated to... View full entry
Tatsuyuki Maeda, a member of the Nakagin Capsule Tower Building Conservation and Regeneration Project, hopes the building will be spared both for its place in architectural history and because of its popularity with tourists. If he had his way, it would not only be preserved but improved, restored to its original state. — CityLab
Reports about the fate of the Kisho Kurokawa-designed Nakagin Capsule Tower — and likely most popular example of the Japanese Metabolist Architecture movement — have been from swaying from planned demolition to possible protection in recent years. Marie Doezema's CityLab piece tries to... View full entry
Heatherwick Studio has commenced construction on the redevelopment of the Tarnomon-Azabudai district of Tokyo. the project is due to complete in March 2023 and is Heatherwick Studio's first project in Japan to move into construction. The studio focused on the "public realm and lower-level podium... View full entry
