Famous architect Sou Fujimoto Design For Japan’s Record-Setting Torch Tower
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Lauded Japanese architect </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sou Fujimoto</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> has announced that he and his </span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">eponymou</span></span><span style="color: #000000;">
Published -
Jan 22, 2021 3:31 AM
Lauded Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto has announced that he and his eponymous firm will be designing the crown of Torch Tower, a cloud-brushing centrepiece of a nearly 8-acre redevelopment zone headed by Mitsubishi Estate in Chiyoda, Tokyo, dubbed the Tokyo Torch. When completed in 2027, the new supertall will stand as the tallest building in Japan at 1,280-feet. Currently, the 984-foot-tall Abeno Harukas tower in Osaka ranks as the country’s tallest skyscraper. Mitsubishi Estate, the real estate development arm of the Tokyo-headquartered Mitsubishi Group, first announced plans for the then-unnamed Tokyo Torch district in 2016 before formally unveiling details further details of the 63-story anchor office tower this past September. However, it was only recently, on January 8, that Fujimoto announced his firm’s involvement in the design of the superlative skyscraper’s “top part”. Torch Tower “creates the new typology of high-rise building to have a large semi-outdoor hill-like-plaza in the middle of the building around the height of 300m [984 feet], as ‘a Place for People’ instead of ‘an object,’” stated Fujimoto. This symbolic “flame” of Torch Tower will take the form of an undulating and, as mentioned by Fujimoto, semi-outdoor public observation area/sky garden of sorts cut into the shell of the building that will offer visitors sweeping city views and a variety of cultural and recreational programming. Topping this Fujimoto-designed section within the uppermost reaches of the tower will be a 100-room luxury boutique hotel. While a bulk of Torch Tower will be dedicated to commercial office space, the lower levels are set to feature shops, restaurants, a bathhouse, and a 2,000-seat, multi-purpose venue. Flanking Torch Tower will be a sprawling public plaza that will serve as the park-like heart of Tokyo Torch and link the skyscraper with a second, shorter high-rise: the 43-story Tokiwabashi Tower. The entire $4.8 billion mega-development scheme is strategically linked to two major transit hubs: Tokyo Station, the city’s primary intercity rail terminal, and Otemachi Station, the city’s largest and second-busiest subway station. The seismically-sound development will also offer public shelter areas to be used in the event of a major earthquake or other natural disasters.