Tokyo: The Latest Architecture and News

Heatherwick Studio’s first built venture in Japan is a huge planted pergola, put in place to create a new hub for the district of Toranomon-Azabudai in Tokyo, Japan. The project is due for completion in March 2023.

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Although music halls generally appeal to groups of people with a specific interest, Persian architecture firm Hajizadeh & Associates developed a music hall that caters to all citizens of the city, and not just music lovers.

The "Tokyo Music Hall" is an award-winning design that transforms the music hall's roof into a space of contemplation and leisure, inspired by traditional Japanese architecture.

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Traveling around Japan can be an impressive experience for a Western tourist - especially if they have some connection with architecture. In addition to the huge cultural differences, the country is known for its rich architectural production - eight of the 42 Pritzker Prize laureates are Japanese - which has maintained its consistency since the 1960s.

British architectural photographer Peter M. Cook has documented the city of Tokyo and its evolution for more than twenty years. Following the development of the city and its buildings with a large-format camera, Cook's first book of photographs have been published by Hatje Cantz Verlag with 100 shots. The monochromatic, large-format photographs reveal a story of one of the world's most iconic cities.

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• Architects

  Meguro Architecture Laboratory

• Location

  Tokyo, Japan

• Category

  Temple

• Lead Architects

  Mitsuru Hirai, Sayu Yamaguchi

• Area

  846.0 m2

• Project Year

  2015

• Photographs

  Koichi Torimura

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• Architects

  arbol

• Location

  Tokyo, Japan

• Category

  Residential

• Lead Architect

  Yousaku Tsutsumi

• Area

  86.0 m2

• Project Year

  2018

• Photographs

  Hiroshi Ueda

Either as singular outcroppings or as part of a bustling center, skyscrapers are neck-craning icons across major city centers in the world. A modern trope of extreme success and wealth, the skyscraper has become an architectural symbol for vibrant urban hubs and commercial powerhouses dominating cities like New York, Dubai, and Singapore.

While skyscrapers are omnipresent, 2018 introduced new approaches, technologies, and locations to the high-rise typology. From variations in materiality to form, designs for towers have started to address aspects beyond simply efficiency and height, proposing new ways for the repetitive form to bring unique qualities to city skylines. Below, a few examples of proposals and trends from 2018 that showcase the innovative ideas at work: 

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Tokyo-based designer monde has created a series of bookends inspired by the narrow back alleys of Tokyo. As described by My Modern Met, the bookends convey the “dizzying feeling of wandering the city’s back alleys” through a mixture of laser-cut wood and lighting.

The results of the two-year project were debuted at the Design Festa arts and crafts event, where they caught the eye of outlets across Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.

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• Architects

  SUGAWARADAISUKE Architects

• Location

  Tokyo, Japan

• Category

  Renovation

• Project Year

  2018

• Photographs

  Takumi Ota

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• Architects

  Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects

• Location

  Tokyo, Japan

• Category

  Houses Interiors

• Lead Architects

  Naoki Hayasaka, Haruki Nakayama

• Project team

  Mariko Abe, Matteo Lunanova, Ryosuke Baba, Nana Sugiura, Yosuke Tsukamoto, Kenji Hada

• Area

  188.0 m2

• Project Year

  2017

• Photographs

  Yuna Yagi

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• Architects

  Horibe Associates

• Location

  Tokyo, Japan

• Category

  Residential

• Lead Architects

  Naoko Horibe

• Area

  196.22 m2

• Project Year

  2017

• Photographs

  Hiroyuki Hirai

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• Architects

  YDS Architects

• Location

  Tokyo, Japan

• Category

  Renovation

• Team

  Yoshitaka Uchino, Mana Muraki

• Built Area

  49.47 m2

• Total Floor Area

  97.50 m2

• Project Year

  2017

• Photographs

  Nobuki Taoka

The Center for Globalization and Strategy from Barcelona’s IESE Business School has unveiled its annual list of the world’s smartest cities. In its fifth year, the IESE Cities in Motion Index has calculated the performance scores for 165 cities across 80 countries based on an exhaustive rubric of economic and social indicators. Familiar global power centers have maintained their position at the top of the heap, while expanded categories of assessment have helped a few small cities advance their position drastically.

Five lucky architecture enthusiasts and Airbnb users have been offered the unique experience to accompany Kengo Kuma on a guided tour of the 2020 Olympic stadium in Tokyo. The renowned architect has collaborated with Airbnb to offer the exclusive experience, described as a “visit to Kengo’s under-construction Olympic stadium, along with a meet and greet at his studio and tea with the celebrated architect.”

The July 31st tour, sadly fully booked, offers an insightful example of architects collaborating with leaders of the “gig economy” to offer design experiences directly to the public.

Researchers @FECYT_Ciencia have developed a genetic algorithm that predicts the vertical growth of cities. @physorg_com with the details: https://t.co/QsnRA1nTxz pic.twitter.com/JFB6DMJRmR

— Retina Images (@retinaimages) June 5, 2018

The growth and expansion of metropolitan areas has been evident over the past decade. Buildings are getting taller, and urban areas are getting larger. What if there was a way to predict this growth and expansion?

A new study by Spanish researchers from the University of A Coruna has discovered that the increase of skyscrapers in a city reflects the pattern “of certain self-organized biological systems,” as reported by ScienceDaily. The study uses "genetic evolutionary algorithms" to predict urban growth, looking specifically at Tokyo's Minato Ward. Architect Ivan Pazos, the lead author of the new study, explained the science behind the algorithm: "We operate within evolutionary computation, a branch of artificial intelligence and machine learning that uses the basic rules of genetics and Darwin’s natural selection logic to make predictions."

Read on for more about the study and what it could mean for the possibility of estimating vertical urban development.