Prototypes of the modern apartments in Tokyo

The followings are the facades of apartments in Shinonome(東雲), in the bay area of Tokyo and built just a few years ago. These are flat and simple. The below was designed by Kengo Kuma.

The below was designed by Toyo Ito.

Prada in Tokyo

This crystal cut building is Prada in Tokyo, designed by Herzog and De Meuron, famous architects worldwide.

Their works are famous for their unique facade, successfully using ordinary material just like stone, glass, copper...

Prada adds the big gem, including other gems inside, to the city of Tokyo.

Tokyo International Forum 2

This is another photo of Tokyo International Forum.

Comme des garcon, Tokyo

This is the facade of a fashion shop of "comme des garcon" by Rei Kawakubo, a Japanese fashion designer.

The curving wall is impressive and reminds me of Richard Serra, though their feelings are different each other.

Omote Sando Hills

This building is Omote Sando Hills, one of newest and hottest spots in Tokyo and designed by Tadao Ando, a famous architect worldwide.

The building is along a big boulevard, full of trees on both sides. The street is a gentle slope to one of biggest shrine in Japan, Meiji shrine. The street is lined with many fashion shops and cafes, just like something of a mixture of Champs Elysees in Paris and Via Montenapoleone in Milano. (Though this street is nowhere near as elegant as these streets...)

On every weekend many people are enjoying walking in the streets and this is one of the most popular places for getting a date with one's boy or girl friend.

An old and low-rise building used to be here. This new building is also as low as the old one as to be in harmony with the surrounding building and trees. The height of this building is about the same as that of the trees along the street so the building goes well with the scenery.

This building has long and thin plan. In the center of it is a long void and it is surrounded with a spiral and continuous slope. Along the slope are many small shops, selling a variety of goods. The flow planing is, roughly speaking, like the one of Guggenheim Museum in NYC. The spiral slope of this building is exactly the same as the one of the street outside in angle. The well-balanced elements of the width, height and lightness of the corridor make us feel comfortable.

Inside the building is another little street with the same angle and the similarity successfully connects the inside with the outside.

Mr. Exposed Concrete, Tadao Ando

This narrow and round corridor is a part of a building designed by Tadao Ando, a noted architect worldwide. Early works of Tadao Ando feature the simple and elegant texture of exposed concrete. He is also a maestro, skillfully handling the light and shadow. Plus, he has a perfectly sense of scales in his works: the sizes of corridors, rooms, entrances.... They are not too small nor big.

He successfully designs elegant architecture, skillfully controlling the texture, light, shadow and scale.

The building of glass in Tokyo

This glass-block building is a shop of Hermes in Ginza, Tokyo and designed by an Italian architect, Renzo Piano in 2001.

Glass blocks prevent the inside from being seen clearly and, at the same time, make known the light and atmosphere of the inside. These are just like Akari-shoji, Japanese thin-paper door.

By the way, La maison de verre in Paris, designed by Pierre Chareau, is the masterpiece of early 20th-century architecture and use many glass block effectively.