Magazine
Accor Hotels is set to open the Pullman Tokyo Ginza hotel on the site of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, the masterpiece of Metabolism that was designed by Kisho Kurokawa in 1972 and demolished fifty years later despite attempts to save the innovative structure.
Miss Dior: Stories of a Miss opened recently at Roppongi Museum in Tokyo. Designed by OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu, the exhibition unfolds through seven rooms, each revealing a different facet of the Miss Dior parfum. Japan-Architects got a preview of this latest stop for the touring...
The slanted walls of this eight-story office building in Tokyo appear anti-social, even aggressive at first glance, but they are a logical response to an adjacent elevated railway line, the need for acoustic privacy in the offices, and the desire for natural air and light. Makoto Yamaguchi...
The Learning Architecture for Learners is a new building at Tokyo Gakugei University that is part of the Explayground Project. It was designed by VUILD, the studio headed by Koki Akiyoshi that specializes in digital fabrication. Here we present a report on the project from Japan-Architects.
Construction has begun on Torch Tower in Tokyo. Designed by Sou Fujimoto and Yuko Nagayama, the tower will be 390 meters (1,280 feet) when complete in 2028, making it the Japan's tallest building.
Number of Japanese architects by the likes of Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, and Kuma Kengo, who have redesigned public toilets in various locations throughout Shibuya, Tokyo: 16
Born in Munich, architect Florian Busch founded Florian Busch Architects in Tokyo in 2009, after working in the office of Toyo Ito. In the second part of a two-part interview, Busch talks with Ulf Meyer about the Nobori Building in Tokyo, the K8 building in Kyoto, and “Vertical Landscapes,”...
Born in Munich, architect Florian Busch founded Florian Busch Architects (FBA) in 2009, after working in the office of Toyo Ito. In the first part of a two-part interview, Busch talks with Ulf Meyer about his...
Toranomon Hills Station Tower is a mixed-use tower in Tokyo designed by OMA / Shohei Shigematsu for the Mori Corporation. When it opens to the public in fall 2023, it will be OMA’s first tower in Tokyo. Ulf Meyer looked at the project in-progress and sent us his impressions.
Yuko Nagayama & Associates designed the exterior and part of the interior of Tokyu Kabukicho Tower, the commercial building with 48 floors above ground and 5 basement levels, whose unique appearance has attracted attention since it started construction. Japan-Architects visited the tower...
Heatherwick Studio: Building Soulfulness opened on March 17 at Mori Art Museum's Tokyo City View gallery. The first exhibition in Japan devoted to the UK studio of Thomas Heatherwick, Building Soulfulness displays 28 major projects over the last three decades. Ulf Meyer visited...
In a new film by Akira Koyama, founder and owner of KEY OPERATION INC. / ARCHITECTS, the Tokyo architect gives an on-site tour of Ginza Extra Small Building, a five-story commercial building with a tiny footprint.
Tokyu Corporation will open the Tokyu Kabukicho Tower, a large hotel and entertainment complex, on April 14. Designed by Yuko Nagayama & Associates, it is Japan’s...
On his popular "Architecture with Stewart" YouTube channel, Stewart Hicks presents the history of Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower, explains why it was demolished, and speaks with artist Noritaka Minami, who documented the tower for over a decade.
OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture has released renderings of Harajuku Quest, a commercial and cultural center that just started construction on Tokyo's fashionable Omotesando, not far...
Size of a "three–tatami flat" in a nihonma, a home in a Japanese city with a rent of $340 to $630 (€345 to €645) per month: 95 square feet (8.8 m2)
Snøhetta designs a tower for Tokyu Corporation in Tokyo that features a terraced roof topped with trees. Ulf Meyer isn’t buying it. [First published on July 28, 2022; updated with renderings on August 5.]
The building in Tokyo's Ginza district that houses the first Apple Store to open in Japan — in 2003, when it was also the first Apple Store outside of the United States — will be demolished later this year.
Today, April 12, marks the start of the demolition of one of the most important works of postwar architecture in Japan: Nakagin Capsule Tower, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and completed exactly fifty years ago.
Day the demolition of the iconic Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo, designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa and completed in 1972,
One of Kenji Hirose’s best houses — SH-60, located in Nakano ward of northwestern Tokyo — has been demolished.
The Torch Tower will dominate Tokyo's skyline when it's completed in 2028. The 63-story tower is the main element in Tokyo Torch, a mixed-use development in the city's historic Tokiwabashi district.
Although the Nakagin Capsule Tower, an icon of Metabolist architecture in Tokyo designed by Kisho Kurokawa, could not be saved, plans are afoot to remove the capsules, refurbish them, and donate them to museums in and beyond Japan.
Last summer we learned about public toilets designed by Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, and others popping up over Tokyo's Shibuya district. They have been joined by a "toilet village" at Nabeshima Shoto Park designed by Kengo Kuma, the latest facility in the Nippon Foundation's Tokyo Toilet...
Located across the street from a park in Tokyo's Shinagawa City, the Weather House, designed by not architects studio, is wrapped in stairs and terraces that are veiled by a chain-link facade that is ideal for climbing plants.
The latest film from the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art features an interview with Kengo Kuma in his Tokyo office. Filmed in May 2020, the interviews features numerous in-progress international projects by the prolific architect as well as his thoughts on what architecture should address after...
The Nakagin Capsule Tower, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and built in 1972, is making headlines once again, with reports of the owners selling their units and moving out. This news means the likely demolition of one of the only built manifestations of Metabolism.
Number of cooking facilities in the 145 tiny modular living boxes (10 m2 / 107 sf) in Tokyo’s 50-year-old iconic Nakagin Capsule Tower "destined...
On March 20, Louis Vuitton opened its transformed Ginza Naminki store in Tokyo, where Jun Aoki has wrapped the building in wavy dichroic glass and Peter Marino has designed the interiors.
Blending into the trees of Tokyo’s only major public park, Kengo Kuma and Associates' new museum for the Meiji Jingu is a testimony to Japan’s current architectural soul searching.
OMA – Office for Metropolitan Architecture and Ingenhoven Architects are building a vertical city in Tokyo for Mori Building Co., Ltd. All that's missing are the Olympic Games.
A new pavilion, made of laminated veneer lumber (LVL), acts as an architectural ambassador of Finland in Japan. The new Metsä Pavilion, designed by Helin & Co Architects from Helsinki, stands on the grounds of the Finnish Embassy in Tokyo's Roppongi district.
In a new, highly informative film, Akira Koyama, founder and owner of KEY OPERATION / ARCHITECTS, gives an in-depth presentation of a recently completed residential project in Tokyo that his firm designed for people living with cats.
Two roads were there. A wide road with traffic and a narrow alley in a residential area. The new office space for R/URBAN DESIGN OFFICE LLC was planned between these two contrasting roads. Originally, it was divided into a commercial tenant space facing the wide road and a residential space...
Public toilets designed by Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Fumihiko Maki, and other architects are popping up over Tokyo's Shibuya district. The Tokyo Toilet, as the project is called, is replacing old facilities with fully accessible, eye-catching designs.
The International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee have announced that the Summer Olympics, scheduled to open in Tokyo in July, is being postponed to "not later than summer 2021" in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.