Recommend Tokyo Architecture

The list of buildings. See all posts click here.

• Saint Marys Cathedral - Kenzo Tange - 1964
• Nagakin Capsule Tower - Kisho Kurokawa 1972
• Tokyo Institute of Technology Centennial Hall - Kazuo Shinohara 1987
• M2 - Kengo Kuma - 1991
• Sumida Culture Factory - Itsuko Hasegawa 1994
• Tokyo International Forum - Rafael Vinoly 1996
• Saitama Prefecture University - Riken Yamamoto 1999
• Mutsukawa Daycare Center - SAANA  2000.
• Yokohama International Ferry Terminal - FOA 2002.
• Fuji Kindergarten - Tezuka Architects 2007
• Tamagawa Art University Library - Toyo Ito 2007
• KAIT Workshop - Junya Ishigami 2008

Show Tokyo.parallellt.se Architecture list on larger map.

Tokyo Institute of Technology Centennial Hall

Tokyo Institute of Technology (TiTech) Centennial Hall, 1987 - Kazuo Shinohara. The role is the hall is to provide exhibition space, meeting rooms, a small exhibition about the history of Titech and to serves as a landmark situated on the edge of the campus dominating the (taxi) plaza in front of Ookayama station. The other key buildings of this square are the Tokyo Tech Front by Kazunari Sakamoto and a the Tokyu Hospital[Tokyogreenspace] by Koichi Yasuda.
Kazunari Sakamoto was a student of Shinohara as noted in the Sumida Culture Factory post by me this genealogy is important in the understanding of Japanese architecture. Another famous architect from Titech is Tsukamoto of Atelier Bow-wow.
Kazuo Shinohara has deep influence on the development of Japanese architecture and has recently come to international attention again, partly because of being awarded the memorial golden lion in 2010 Venice Biennale.

I've left Tokyo

On the day of the earthquake I was out cycling along Arakawa, at the moment of the first earthquake I was visiting the Sumida Culture Factory and saw the metall screens on roof shake very strongly. When the big aftershock came about half an hour later I could the cranes on the Tokyo Sky Tree sway strongly, the water in a canal became disturbed, the power cables swung disturbingly. As I made my way home across a city with all the trains stopped, full of traffic, full of people walking home I slowly realised as my panic calmed down that this really was the big earthquake. Outside of the south exit of Shinjuku station I saw the pictures of the tsunami rolling into the countryside.
This is a series of pictures take the day of the great Tohoku Earthquake showing small damages in Tokyo. Due to the what happened after earthquake me and my wife decieded to leave Tokyo two weeks earlier than we had planned. We didn't really have any reason to stay the two extra weeks and as the nuclear situation seemed uncertain, despite that Tokyo still was safe, we decided that it was time to leave.
For people who have their life in Tokyo it might be different but our life in Tokyo was almost over. Everything that kept us in Tokyo got cancelled (a visit and a graduation ceremony).  

blocking chair

Inspired by a-small-lab's work with Tokyo Design Space I think that this chair is worthy of attention. Even tough this fix has an official air. Also I would like to point out that thanks to this sharing of viewpoints, our view of the city expands as we see more and more in every situation. This chair works as a temporary road block transforming shared space, which it must be noted is clearly dominated by walking people most of the time, into a pedestrian zone during the peak hours of shopping in Shimokitazawa. This kind of closure is usual on both small streets like this example in the suburban Kyodo (a with more normal looking sign) and in major shopping areas like Shinjuku, Akihabara or Ginza on weekends.

Material: Paper, tape, marker and plastic chair.
Location: Shimokitazawa, Setagaya, Tokyo.

fantastic structure

Forum 246 as seen from Odakyu-line. A fantastic structure is visible in the facade.

curtain wall house

Curtain Wall House, Shigeru Ban, 1995. On windy winter day.

A curtain wall is an outer covering of a building in which the outer walls are non-structural, but merely keep out the weather. - Wikipedia.

mies invented the glass curtain wall, but I just used a curtain. Shigeru Ban - Designboom

What is notable is the tree missing in the old photos. If must affect the second floor deck space deeply in summer. Also the four cars crammed into the plot.

More information with plans from a Moma exhibition. Shigeru Ban Architects website about the project here.

Edo Tokyo Museum

Edo Tokyo Museum - Kiyonori Kikutake - 1993. The grand exhibition hall lifted from a giant podium on four giant legs which provides vertical access. The main access is through a disturbing red escalator.

Just the building itself, which looks like it has been spirited from the set of Star Wars, is a wonder. - Lonely Planet Japan

Another bubble project this time the city museum, which covers the history and development from Edo to Tokyo with a story ending somewhere around the Olympics gives a certain insight into the city.
As many bubble projects the cost of this museum was big, and a better end result could surely have been delivered  for the same amount of money. But there still is something charmingly utopian over this whole project. Sadly the podium, the vast outdoor space underneath the museum seems sadly under used. The would be a wonderful setting for a park project.
The architect behind the museum Kikutake is mostly famous for Sky House, metabolism and his various marine city schemes. Sadly the 1994 Tokyo Sofitel, close to Ueno, telling the this story is no longer.
He also worked with the group behind various hyper building schemes.

Access: JR Sobu-line Ryogoku or TOEI Oedo-line
Other works: Sky House

a slim house

Another example of typology. Here a slim and high house next to two wider houses. Random placement of smaller windows. The plot behind the house belong to a small danchi like building with a large garden.

Air condition units around the house. One for every space or in this case floor. Note the cable connecting the 3rd floor with the outdoor unit on the second floor.