1984 – Wacoal Building – Kisho Kurokawa

Posted on February 22, 2017 Posted in 80sTagged Architecture, Kisho Kurokawa, TokyoLeave a comment

An office and warehouse facility for a maker of women’s lingerie, this building is in a prominent location near the imperial palace. The client wanted to make the building as tall as possible, and the architect created a nine-story structure with a distinctive profile. The walls are glass and Neopariés, a crystallized glass material. The bottom three floors accommodating the warehouse have tilted walls. Show windows face Hanzomon Dori. Showrooms and offices are on the fourth to eight floor, and a reception room is on the top floor under a double-layered vault. The round window on the top has pattern based on astronomical chart from an 1826 Japanese text.

Name: Wacoal Building │Type: Office│Architect: Kisho Kurokawa│Completed: 1984

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1983 – GA Gallery – Makato Suzuki (AMS Architects)

Posted on February 15, 2017February 15, 2017 Posted in 80sTagged Architecture, Makato Suzuki, TokyoLeave a comment

1983 – GA Gallery – Makato Suzuki und AMS Architects

This exposed concrete building, which accommodates a gallery and bookstore dedicated to architecture and the offices of the publisher of GA, is on a narrow side street, halfway between Yoyogi and Omotesando station. The interior of the building offers a spatial variety, while the surface of the walls, floor and ceiling is either in exposed concrete, steel or glass constructed, which creats an atmosphere of roughness.

Name: GA Gallery │Type: Gallery and Office│Architect: Makato Suzuki (AMS Architects)│Completed: 1983

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1982 – Tokyo Union Church – Heng Kitayama (Nishimatsu Construction)

Posted on February 15, 2017February 15, 2017 Posted in 80sTagged Architecture, Heng Kitayama, TokyoLeave a comment

1982 – Tokyo Union Church – Heng Kitayama for Nishimatsu Construction

Tokyo Union Church is located right at the busy, fancy and famous Omotesando shopping street. A close look reveals various curious forms found on the exterior of the building. Hence the building has been executed in somewhat of an anomalous style compared to the other familiar design in the vicinity.

Name: Tokyo Union Church │Type: Church│Architect: Heng Kitayama (Nishimatsu Construction) │Completed: 1982

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1982 – Embassy of Brazil – Ruy Ohtake

Posted on February 13, 2017 Posted in 80sTagged Architecture, Ruy Ohtake, TokyoLeave a comment

1982 – Embassy of Brazil – Ruy Ohtake

The Embassy of the Federative Republic of Brazil is characterised by its curved façade and a yolk-yellow volume organised around a small square in front of the building. Its Niemeyer- and Artigas-influenced architect, Ruy Ohtake, was born in São Paulo as son of the Nippo-Brazilian artist Tomie Ohtake.

Name: Embassy of Brazil │Type: Office│Architect: Ruy Ohtake │Completed: 1982

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1980 – Shoto Museum of Art – Seiichi Shirai

Posted on February 11, 2017 Posted in 80sTagged Architecture, Seiichi Shirai, TokyoLeave a comment

1980 – Shoto Museum – Seiichi Shirai

This quite strange piece of 80s architecture is situated in an upscale residential district not far from the busy and fancy Shibuya shopping an entertainment area. Although the building accommodates special exhibits, lectures and workshops for the public, the facade suggests, not a community facility, but a maximum security prison. As in the Noa Building, the entrance is a narrow slit in a rouhly-textured wall.

The wall is clad in Korean granite, and bronze louvers are installed over the opening. Translucent panels of onyx form the ceiling over the vestibule. There are four levels to the building, of which two are belowground, and the spaces are organized around a deep lightwell. After the dramatic buildup, the lightwell is something of anticlimax. The well, adorned with fluted cast-aluminium columns, is spanned by a bridge. Fountains discharche weak trickles of water at the bottom of the space. The gallery, crescent-shaped, is a two-story space overlooked by a gallery.

Name: Shoto Museum of Art │Type: Museum│Architect: Seiichi Shirai │Completed: 1980

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1979 – University of Tokyo Administration Bureau – Kenzo Tange

Posted on January 31, 2017 Posted in 70sTagged Architecture, Kenzo Tange, TokyoLeave a comment

1979_University of Tokyo Administration_Kenzo Tange

Administration Bureau Building 1 was designed by Kenzo Tange, and was built in 1979. It is located near the Tatsuoka mon; and, as its name suggests, it is used as the head office of the University. The building has 12 floors, which was uncommonly tall for 1979. Administration Bureau Building 2 was finished in 1976 as Faculty of Science Building 7. It was also designed by Kenzo Tange. The building is situated next to the Administration Bureau, and its design is similar to that of the latter. At first, the building was used for the mathematics, science, and geological science departments. The architecture of both buildings is exemplary for Tange’s late structuralism. The very solid and closed towers at each corner supports the structural clarity of the buidling. It’s expression is similar to an medieval castle, but in a modern construction.

Name: University of Tokyo Administration Bureau 1 / 2│Type: Office│Architect: Kenzo Tange │Completed: 1976 / 1979

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1979 – Royal Danish Embassy – Fumihiko Maki

Posted on October 5, 2016 Posted in 70sTagged Architecture, Fumihiko Maki, TokyoLeave a comment

Located next to the Hillside Terrace, the Danish Embassy is designed by the same architect, Fumihiko Maki. Although the salmon pink tiles immediately distinguish the embassy from the adjacent developement, the treatement is quite similar. The chancery facade acknowledges the curve of the street it faces. The translucent windows give privacy to the office spaces, while shoji-like screens provide privacy to the upperlevel office units.

Name: Royal Danish Embassy│Type: Office│Architect: Fumihiko Maki │Completed: 1979

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1977 – Sogetsu Kaikan – Kenzo Tange

Posted on October 5, 2016October 5, 2016 Posted in 70sTagged Architecture, Kenzo Tange, TokyoLeave a comment

1977 – Sogetsu Kaikan – Kenzo Tange

Replacing an earlier facility, designed also by Kenzo Tange, this headquarters for the Sogetsu school of flower arrangement is essentially L-shaped in plan. A slit at the corner suggests two separate prisms placed a hairsbreadth apart. The blue reflective glass is a nod to Sofu Teshigahara, the founde of the school, whose first name is written with a character meaning blue. Isamu Noguchi designed the so-called ‘plaza’, a large installation on the first floor.

Name: Sogetsu Kaikan│Type: Office / Museum│Architect: Kenzo Tange │Completed: 1977

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1976 – From 1st Building – Kazamusa Yamashita

Posted on September 27, 2016 Posted in 70sTagged Architecture, Kazamusa Yamashita, TokyoLeave a comment

1976 – From 1st Building – Kazamusa Yamashita

The From-First building is a complex building of offices and shopping facilities in a fast growing fashionable area of Tokyo, called Minami-Aoyama. It was not based on the functional flow planning, but on a free composition with a circular movement. The elevation consists of expressive irregularities. The exterior and interior facade is covered with red brick tiles. The building is an outstanding example of early deconstruction architecture.

Name: From 1st Building│Type: Office / Commercial│Architect: Kazamusa Yamashita │Completed: 1976

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1976 – Embassy of the USA – Cesar Pelli

Posted on September 27, 2016September 27, 2016 Posted in 70sTagged Architecture, Cesar Pelli, TokyoLeave a comment

The building is made up of an 11-story east block and a two-two story west block, sitting on top of two basement floors. The tall block is steel-frame, the short block is reinforced concrete an the basement is steelframe reinforced concrete. The facade – an outsized banner of beige and blue – is scaled so as to be legible frm a speeding automobile.

Name: Embassy of the USA│Type: Office│Architect: Cesar Pelli │Completed: 1976

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