Tokyo Architecture: What's new

Tokyo Architecture: What's new
Metropolis Magazine, Tokyo, 2012
LINK: /Users/Deanna/Desktop/Metropolis/930 08-09_FEATURE.pdf

Tokyo’s architectural landscape is a constantly changing scene. Don’t like a building? Wait 5 minutes and the scaffolding crews may arrive, take it down and presto, before you know it, new building. With this etch-a-sketch-like approach to urban planning, Tokyo is one of the most exciting urban landscapes on the planet. The downside of this is that Tokyo is also a huge producer of construction waste, not to mention the high carbon footprint associated with the construction industry. But even in these economically uncertain times, new buildings – both good and bad - are springing up all over in 2012.

Tokyo has always loved big architectural gestures and the biggest of 2012 has to be the 634 meter Sky Tree (www.tokyo-skytree.jp/english) which will officially open on May 22, but is already the world’s tallest free standing tower (topping the former #1, China’s Guangzhou Tower by 34m). Intriguingly, the cutting-edge technology needed to build such a tower in Tokyo was inspired by traditional multi-stories pagoda that employ “shimbashira-seishin’ or ‘central column vibration control.’

More vertical thrills will be had at the 182.5 m Shibuya Hikarie (www.hikarie.jp) that opens on April 26. Its 34 glass-clad floors filled with youth-oriented shops, offices, a theater and exhibit hall, will soon be the place to be in Shibuya.

Both of these projects show the genius (and daring) of structural engineering in tremor-prone Japan as well as love all things…well, big. Yet in terms of design, they are somewhat generic and raise questions about the need for yet another bland commercial tower in Tokyo.

And indeed the architectural mood in 2012 looks to be moving towards a subtler design aesthetic in public buildings, reflecting a growing awareness of the need to consider the environment, both built and natural. With reconstruction in Tohoku only beginning, the need and desire to find innovative and sustainable ways of building is only growing. Several new projects seek not only to fit into but also to enhance their surroundings.

With the rise of the Sky Tree, the Asakusa area has seen a spate of new architectural projects. One of the most exciting is Kengo Kuma’s (www.kkaa.co.jp) Asakusa Culture and Tourist Center which promises to make an elegant contemporary counterpart to its historic neighbor, the temple complex of Sensoji. Presently under construction opposite the iconic Kaminari-mon Gate, Kuma’s design resembles a delicate house of cards, with one glass and wooden lattice structure atop another. It will house a tourist information center as well as a community hall, exhibition space and cafeteria, which will all offer spectacular views of the swooping roofs Sensoji.

The much-awaited Diakanyama T-Site (http://tsite.jp/daikanyama/) designed for Tsutaya by Klein Dytham Architects (www.klein-dytham.com) opened in early December to general delight and is drawing even more urban cool hunters to one of Tokyo’s most stylish neighbourhoods. Covering a 12,000m2 site, the attractive low-rise complex of shops, eateries and an art gallery is organized around a public green space with old growth trees. Three distinctive T-covered buildings house a huge, browser friendly Tsutaya. The buildings are linked by overhead walkways and, on the ground level, symbolically by a “magazine avenue” - a wooden path through the three buildings where you can find every local and international magazine you can think of. One upper floor is devoted to a chic cafe and lounge space lit by a large skylight and open until 2am. The larger complex even has a dog grooming salon with a saw-dust covered ‘dog-garden’ where owners can let their newly coiffed pets frolic beneath a giant dog sculpture. Overall, it is a welcoming space that successfully blends well-designed architecture, greenery and places for people to shop, eat, socialize or even work - laptop using coffee drinkers have already taken up residence. It is a new kind of complex for Tokyo - on a smaller, human-sized scale, design oriented with a restrained, green aesthetic. And considering the numbers of black-clad, young architects strolling around the site, camera in hand, at its opening, it will no doubt prove a template for future projects.

More experiments in urban planning are now underway in Fujisawa City, on the southwest outskirts of Tokyo, where Panasonic and other Japanese companies are building an energy-efficient “smart town.” “Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town” or Fujisawa SST for short, aims to be a model for sustainable living (http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/en110526-3/en110526-3.html#news_sender_en).
And at a projected cost of 60 billion yen, it better be.

The project began in 2009 but has taken on new impetus since March as concerns about energy sources became part of daily conversation. Being built on the site of an old Panasonic factory, the town is designed with an intelligent network of electricity grids that will permit energy conservation, sharing and storage. There will be a system of electric car sharing, solar panels, LED lights and smart appliances that communicate with a main network to conserve energy. Passive energy sources will also be tapped with “wind paths” and strategically placed greenery. When complete in 2014, it will support 1000 households for approximately 3000 people and should, according to Panasonic, reduce normal carbon emissions by 70%.

Other companies are also proposing similar ideas in Saitama, Yokohama and elsewhere, so watch out for a new “smart town” near you.

The growing interest in green architecture takes a literal turn in several individual projects. The busy and much-loved Azabu Juban shotengai (shopping street) often sees buildings come and go as businesses look to attract customers with fresh buildings and designs. Among the latest crop is an elegant plant-clad project by Edward Suzuki Architects (www.edward.net). Called the “Vent Vert” or “Green Wind” its 9-storey facade with be covered by live greenery which, when completed in the spring 2012, will give both tenants and passersby the visual and tactile pleasures of a vertical garden on a dense city street.

Hiroshi Nakamura and NAP Architect’s Tokyu Plaza Harajuku Omotesando (http://www.nakam.info/english/works/omotesando%20project/index.html) will even attempt a small forest. Opening in April, the shopping complex will feature a roof like a bouquet of trees, a symbolic nod to the famous zelkova’s of Omotesando dori and inserting an ecological note into a glamorous consumerist boulevard. Already, passersby can see the tops of tree peeking out above behind the covering curtains surrounding the construction site.

Omotesando is a constantly changing showplace for new architecture, even at the cost of the loss of older buildings by major architects. Pritzker prize-winning architect Kenzo Tange’s 1977 Aoyama Obasyashi Building (better know as the Hanae Mori Building) on Omotesando was recently demolished (despite protests) to make way for a new building now under construction. Considering that the average lifespan of a building in Tokyo is about 20 years, Tange’s building was practically aged at 33. But Tokyo’s astronomical land prices mean that older buildings are rarely renovated, even one by such an iconic architect like Tange. Instead they are demolished and replaced by larger, more profitable buildings. The structure now being built (by the Obayashi Corporation) will reach the maximum height allowable on the street rising 48m with 9 stories (compared to Tange’s 5) and add some 5000m2 of profitable retail space. It will be interesting to see, when the scaffolding comes down, how this new building compares to a work by Kenzo Tange.

However, old buildings are not just for tearing down anymore. Tokyo’s long preferred scrap and rebuild method of urban renewable is starting to be questioned. Economic uncertainty as well as issues of recycling, building waste and preservation are helping start a brand new trend: renovations of historic buildings. The 1914 Tokyo Station has been receiving a major facelift under construction wraps for several years. But the wrapping will come off in 2012. Topped by shiny new copper roofs, the brick complex will return a bit of refurbished Meiji/Taisho-era charm to the crisp business district of Marunouchi and hopefully add a bit of pleasure/convenience for train and metro users, who have long skirted around the huge construction site. The exterior should be fully revealed in March and services at the station could start as early as June.

All these trends - to more ecologically minded buildings, more user-friendly public spaces, more renovations of older buildings - have been growing in recent years. But since the March earthquake and tsunami, architects and others are seriously reflecting on where Japanese architecture goes next. What innovations and new ideas will come out the difficult events of 2011? Will we see more well-designed, sustainable and beautiful buildings in 2012?

Look out for the above projects as well as for the often avant-garde works by some of the many smaller, up-and coming firms in Japan - such as Tezuka Architects (www.tezuka-arch.com) Sou Fujimoto Architects (www.sou-fujimoto.net) and Kumiko Inui (www.inuiuni.com). Keep watching as 2012 could prove to be an exciting year for Japanese architecture.