Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
A few months removed from their grand House of Music debut in Budapest, Sou Fujimoto Architects has just unveiled concept renderings and a project website of an undulating coastal resort design on Okinawa’s Ishigaki Island for the Japanese hospitality brand NOT A HOTEL. The circular... View full entry
Foster + Partners has unveiled designs for a nine-story, timber-structure department store in Tokyo, presenting an elegant retail space that features several green-building practices. Called the Shibuya Marui Department Store, the space is set to become a new showcase for sustainable lifestyle... View full entry
As reported by The Washington Post and other outlets, some of the 140 surviving capsules will be transformed into rentable apartment units, with others traveling to public collections abroad such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which has expressed interest along with many other international... View full entry
Tokyo Disney Resort has revealed that one of its most iconic rides, Space Mountain, will be closing for a major renovation. The overhaul will commence in 2024, and by 2027, the rebuilt cosmic attraction is promised to offer enhanced performance and immersive special effects. The reported cost of... View full entry
Construction has been completed on the structure of Japan’s second tallest building, the 330m Toranomon-Azabudai Project A District tower, which will be second only to the Tokyo Tower. — Global Construction Review
The tower is part of the larger Toranomon-Azabudai District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project, which will include two other buildings, all designed by Pelli Clarke & Partners, that will host offices, residences, a hotel, an international school, retail shops, restaurants, and cultural... View full entry
On April 12, work on the demolition of the iconic Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo began after well over a decade of preservation efforts. With its disassembly ongoing, an Instagram account dedicated to honoring the famed metabolist structure has posted updated images of scaffolding rising... View full entry
The fate of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, one of the founders of the Metabolist movement, has sustained a strong following since the announcement of its proposed demolition in 2007. At first glance, it checks all the boxes of a futuristic... View full entry
Architect Kei Endo has a fascinating hobby: While traveling, she measures and sketches her hotel rooms, including the furniture and objects within them, in great detail……draws them up with a Rapidograph……and renders them in watercolor. — Core77
Endo, a graduate out of the Tokyo University of the Arts with experience as a practicing architect, currently works at an environmental color planning office. Her work as an illustrator has gained acclaim, though, as she’s produced an array of incredibly detailed drawings of the hotel rooms she... View full entry
Last year Japan’s Serendix Partners caught our eye with its concept for spherical, 3D-printed houses. Not only do they have a stylish, futuristic appeal, Serendix wants them to be low-priced enough to make the cost of buying their 3D-printed houses comparable to that of a budget-friendly new car. — Japan Today
From start to finish, the small, egg-shaped dwelling, called the Sphere, took 23 hours and 12 minutes to build. The home, which won NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge in 2015, was designed by Japanese architect Masayuki Sono. It was constructed in the city of Komaki in Japan’s Aichi... View full entry
Ryuichi Sasaki/Sasaki Architecture has returned to the international spotlight with its winning entry for the mixed-use portion of this year’s Architecture MasterPrize that adds an iconic new touch to one of Tokyo’s oldest neighborhoods. Located in the city’s Minato ward, the... View full entry
![[Prism] © Kim Dong-Gyu](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/dd/ddc75777fc0141a4c2ed086fa1014a46.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=514 "[Prism] © Kim Dong-Gyu")
The light and air art installation [Prism] by Japanese studio HAKUTEN was recently named as one of the “Best of the Best” winners of the 2021 Architecture MasterPrize. Situated on an old military installation in Kanagawa Prefecture called Sarushima, the installation refracts light into a... View full entry
Researchers from the University of Tokyo’s Department of Architecture have developed a promising new kind of concrete that has the potential to reduce emissions from the construction industry. Approximately 7% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions come from the manufacture and use of... View full entry
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 Tenjin Business Center's pixellated corner... View full entry
Kengo Kuma champions an ideal of “losing architecture”—intricate buildings that disappear into their environs—although it’s hard to miss the new National Stadium … His stylistic fingerprints can be seen throughout the elaborate project … Greenery dots the facade of the oval-shaped structure, the centerpiece of this year’s Games, allowing a series of wooden eaves—a favored material for Kuma, procured from prefectures across Japan—to better blend in with the surrounding garden. — TIME
Kengo Kuma’s design for the Japan National Stadium served as the centerpiece for this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games. Kuma also recently announced museum projects with literary tie-ins in Denmark and Norway and has been able to add sneaker collaborations and homeware to his portfolio... View full entry
Glenn Murcutt has been named the 2021 Praemium Imperiale laureate for architecture by the Japan Art Association, making him the first Australian to be awarded the honor. Announcing the achievement, the Japan Art Association described Murcutt as “an architect ahead of his time; an architect... View full entry
