Japanese architect Keiji Ashizawa has created the interior for a skincare clinic in Tokyo, using textiles and custom-made furniture to make it feel more residential than medical.

The Aloop Clinic & Lab, which provides "skin cure and care", is located in the city's upscale Ginza area and run by Japanese beauty company POLA. Ashizawa wanted to give it an interior that would feel peaceful, while also representing the brand.

"As a clinic that uses medical technology to deal with beauty, we thought that the space should have sincerity, calmness, and beauty in order to create a comfortable time for customers to feel at ease," Ashizawa told Dezeen.

"In addition, considering that this is a completely new business for the POLA beauty brand, we felt that it was necessary to create a space that would enhance the brand."

To do so, Ashizawa looked at the design of the 210-square-metre clinic like he would if he were designing a residential space, giving it a calm, minimalist interior.

"Although it is a clinic, I considered the space to be similar to a hotel or a living space," he said. "Therefore, I used materials that I use in designing living spaces and hotels."

"The walls are plaster and the floor is a wool rug from Hotta Carpet," he added. "The sofa and furniture at the characteristic entrance are made of Kvadrat wool textile to create a pleasant texture."

The architect used a clean, simple colour palette throughout the space, with white-painted walls contrasting against wooden panelling and wooden doors.

"Wood was used for doors, furniture and details because we wanted to create a residential calm rather than a clinic," Ashizawa said. "We felt that a bright and healthy atmosphere was necessary."

"The extensive use of wood was to create a residential atmosphere, and we wanted the space to be as far away from a typical clinic as possible," he added.

His studio worked together with wooden furniture brand Karimoku to design the custom-made sofas for the space, which welcome customers as they enter the clinic.

"Of particular importance to this project were the custom sofas," Ashizawa said.

"We asked Karimoku, with whom we communicate on a daily basis for furniture development and wood projects, to work with us on the development of the furniture."

He compared his collaboration with the brand to that of mid-century modern Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and furniture brand Artek.

"For me, Karimoku has become an indispensable partner in thinking about space, just as Aalto is for Artek," he explained.

By creating the sofas with rounded edges, Ashizawa aimed for them to "gently envelop" customers after their treatments.

"The mere fact that something looks hard or painful makes the body tense, so we thought it would be desirable to eliminate such things," he said.

"However, in order to maintain a comfortable sense of tension in the room, delicate details of metal and wood were used to achieve a balance."

Small sculptures were dotted throughout the Aloop clinic, including in the treatment rooms.

Ashizawa has previously designed an interior with a similar colour palette for the Hiroo Residence in Tokyo, and also used plenty of wood for his and Norm Architects minimalist Trunk Hotel design.

The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.

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Double-height balconies and outdoor teaching spaces enliven the facades of The British School in Tokyo, which architecture practice Heatherwick Studio has completed in Japan.

The school is located in the south of Azabudai Hills, a mixed-use district designed by Heatherwick Studio, which is made up of various timber buildings defined by curving roofs and greenery.

Heatherwick Studio's and Japanese developer Mori Building Company's ambition for the school was to be visually distinct yet complementary to these neighbouring structures.

"The client wanted the school to have a different but complementary character to the rest of the Azabudai Hills scheme," the studio told Dezeen.

"As such, it nestles within the pavilion and landscape scheme we've created, overlooking the central garden plaza to the north," it continued.

"The client also wanted it to have a strong individual presence on the street that didn't feel commercial or business-like. They wanted it to feel friendly and approachable, like a school!"

According to Heatherwick Studio, the presence of the school within the district references the impact of Stanton Williams' placement of the arts college Central Saint Martins in the heart of King's Cross in London.

"We felt that – as seen with Central Saint Martins at the centre of the King's Cross development – having a school can be a key anchor to a project, bringing life and activity to the scheme from different angles," the studio explained.

To achieve its distinct identity, the studio animated the building's facades with a mix of outdoor play spaces and double-height balconies.

Curved brick details and fluted columns were also designed visually soften the blocky form of the building, which was dictated by the given site's boundaries and the client's programme requirements.

"The plot boundary and programme were already fixed, which resulted in an, approximately, 100-metre-long building of seven storeys," the studio explained.

"Because of the block-like form, we worked hard to adjust its character for its three main elevations, using the required outdoor learning spaces and playgrounds to bring variety to the building's appearance."

The balconies can be seen along the eastern facade, arranged in a cascading formation and overlooking a garden at the centre of Azabudai Hills. Meanwhile, the stepped columns can be found all around the building.

"The stepped columns both push through and blend open to create fluting ceilings under the main outdoor terraces, drawing the eye up along its elevations," the studio explained.

Inside, The British School in Tokyo has 40 classrooms, alongside music rooms, libraries, a laboratory and a roof garden with a vegetable patch.

Each year group also has a common area, which opens onto the adjoining outdoor spaces. They can also be connected to the classrooms through sliding timber screens.

A range of sports facilities, including an indoor hall, gymnasium and swimming pool, alongside two outdoor pitches, complete the building.

Elsewhere in the district, Heatherwick Studio has created residential buildings, retail and restaurant spaces, two temples, art galleries and offices, which collectively replaced more than 200 existing structures on the site.

The British School in Tokyo's brickwork and columns are intended as a reference to the facade of the old Azabu Post Office that previously occupied a neighbouring plot.

Heatherwick Studio is a London architecture and design studio founded by British designer Thomas Heatherwick in 1994.

Its other recent architectural projects include proposals for a public library in Columbia and an exhibition hall in Shanghai.

The photography is by Raquel Diniz and the video is courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.

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Examples of practical and playful paper packaging were presented at this exhibition curated by designer Makoto Umebara as part of the Takeo Paper Show in Tokyo, Japan.

The exhibition was organised by Takeo Co, a specialist paper trading company established in 1899.

Since 1965, Takeo has presented an annual showcase of paper that explores the material's meaning and value through collaborations with leading designers.

This 49th edition of the Takeo Paper Show occupied two floors of the Kanda Square Hall exhibition venue near the company's Mihoncho Honten store.

Titled 'Packaging: Function and Laughter', the exhibition was divided into two main sections, with simple scenography by graphic designer Kenya Hara helping to differentiate each part.

The first section focused on the functional possibilities of paper, as well as examining how its use is evolving in response to technological advancements in areas such as printing and transportation.

"In today's world, in which new light is being directed to paper as a material, not only as a substitute for plastic, this exhibition asks that we pay attention to, what forms will emerge from these organic fibres, and what new value is created," said Takeo Co.

Curator Umebara selected projects by 13 designers and studios that highlighted innovative uses for paper in packaging, including a series of mechanical paper sculptures by graphic designer Masaya Ishikawa and artist and engineer Hiroaki Nakaji.

"These individuals understand the true value of paper and appreciate its unique sensory properties," the organisers added.

"Their proposals for packaging, both containers and wrapping, have been thoroughly considered on a practical level."

Other projects featured in the 'Function' section included graphic designer Agata Yamaguchi's piece resembling a bunch of flowers made using simple cardboard tubes set on paper straw stems.

Satoshi Yoshiizumi's studio Takt Project created a series of objects that transform from flat templates to three-dimensional forms when the paper is dampened.

One side of the paper is coated using a UV silk screen process that doesn't react to humidity, while the uncoated side causes the paper to bend and form predetermined shapes.

Nomena's playful food packaging features faceted forms that nest together to create simple orthogonal shapes. Each constituent element contains its own item, such as tea bags, chocolates or bags of juice.

The exhibition's second section, called 'Laughter', examined the emotional appeal of paper and how it can be used to produce creative and engaging containers and packaging.

Umebara selected 100 projects to feature in this part of the show, such as a set of novelty tea bags featuring paper holders printed with pictures of the British royal family.

Alongside the exhibition, Takeo Paper Show also presented a display focusing on paper as a sustainable material, including details of circular manufacturing processes and the importance of forest management.

The company also produced a book containing images of all the packaging examples displayed in the exhibition, along with input from Hara and Umebara and discussions about the relationship between people and paper.

Japanese designers are behind some of the most innovative examples of paper-based products in recent years, including a range of recyclable soap dispensers by Nendo that look like milk cartons and Kai's plastic-free disposable razor informed by origami.

Packaging: Function and Laughter was on show from 13 to 22 October 2023 as part of the Takeo Paper Show. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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Japanese studio IGArchitects conceived this home in Tokyo as an adaptable space for both living and working, with stepped living areas framed by boardmarked concrete walls.

Named Building Frame of the House, the home in Saitama was designed by IGArchitects to function as "one big room".

"[The clients] have a vague boundary between their private and work life, therefore they were imagining a house where they can work anywhere and where they can sense the presence of each other wherever in the house," founder Masato Igarashi told Dezeen.

"With such lifestyle, rather than have small spaces for compact living, the house was designed to have a large volume and scale that makes various interactions between inside and outside space," he added.

To keep the central space as open as possible, IGA organised the floors of the home as irregularly stepped mezzanine levels, connected by black-metal staircases and a ladder.

The ground-floor kitchen and first-floor bathroom both sit at the rear of the home, while the bedrooms and living spaces are at the front. Here, a large bookshelf extends the height of the southern wall.

While the side walls have been left almost completely blank, sections of full-height glazing at the front of the home provide ample natural light through the depth of the plan.

"The floors are divided to make it difficult to see the interior from the outside, which is treated like a wall," Igarashi told Dezeen.

"The way the space is used overlaps, responding to the residents' lifestyle," he continued. "The floors can turn into a seat, table, shelve, ceiling or bed."

Throughout the home, the boardmarked concrete structure has been left exposed and complemented by wooden floors and shelving and metal countertops in the kitchen.

"We selected materials that would develop their own flavour as they age, and we wanted to bring out the texture and strength of the materials and their shades in the space," said Igarashi.

"Since the site is too small to create a garden, the interior and exterior are treated equally, and the materials are unified inside and out."

IGArchitects previously created a similarly flexible living space for One Legged House in Okinama, which is wrapped by sliding glass doors that open it up to the landscape.

Other Japanese homes recently featured on Dezeen include a house in Kamakura designed by Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL as "one big cat tree" and a stripped-back "warehouse villa" in Isumi by Arii Irie Architects.

The photography is by Ooki Jingu.

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Architecture practice Heatherwick Studio has completed the Azabudai Hills development in Tokyo, which is defined by curving roofs topped with greenery.

Aiming to create a city district that provides access to nature and a diversity of spaces, Heatherwick Studio designed Azabudai Hills to contain residential buildings, retail and restaurant spaces, a school, two temples, art galleries, offices and 24,000 square metres of public green space.

The 81,000-square-metre-development was informed by timber pergola structures with a gridded roof structure that extends like hilltops to create curving forms extending to ground level.

Heatherwick Studio added trees, flowers and meandering routes between the building and on the sloping roofs, aiming to create spaces that invite exploration and encourage social gatherings.

According to the studio, Japanese developer Mori Building Company shared its desire to create publicly accessible green space.

"[Azabudai Hills] is now one of Tokyo's greenest urban areas and continues Mori Building Company's commitment to creating garden cities where the landscape simultaneously supports nature and people," said Heatherwick Studio.

Azabudai Hills is situated on a Y-shaped site that the studio divided into three irregularly shaped sections, each designed to have their own distinct character.

The eastern section is dominated by retail space, while the southern section acts as a business district and a residential neighbourhood is located to the west.

A 700-metre covered walkway spans between two metro stations located at either end of the site, providing a sheltered route for commuters.

"We were inspired to create a district that connects with people's emotions in a different way," said Heatherwick Studio founder Thomas Heatherwick.

"By combining cultural and social facilities with an extraordinary three-dimensional explorable landscape, it's been possible to offer visitors and the local community somewhere to connect with each other and enjoy open green public spaces," he added.

"This is a joyful and unique public place for Tokyo, designed to be cherished for many years."

As well as spans of public green space, the district includes an outdoor events space named The Cloud, which is sheltered by an ornately curling canopy.

Heatherwick Studio designed a 15,000-square-metre building for The British School of Tokyo as part of the development, with outdoor learning and play spaces spread across its eight levels.

The development replaces more than 200 structures that were originally on the site, many of them post-war buildings that were in bad condition, according to Heatherwick Studio.

Mori Building Company worked with local residents and businesses when regenerating the site, and claims that over 90 per cent of the original tenants plan to return to the new district.

Designs for upcoming projects from Heatherwick Studio that have been unveiled this year include an exhibition centre in Shanghai wrapped in curved balconies and a stacked cylindrical tower in Utrecht topped with planted terraces.

The photography is by Raquel Diniz.

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An exposed raw concrete facade fronts the Trunk Hotel Yoyogi Park, which Japanese studio Keiji Ashizawa Design and Danish firm Norm Architects conceived as a minimalist retreat in the heart of the city.

Marking the third location in a trio of Trunk hotels in Tokyo, the design of the boutique hotel was rooted in the concept of "urban recharge", according to Trunk chief creative officer Masayuki Kinoshita.

The hotel group said the idea was to balance the opposing elements of tradition and modernity as well as nature and the city and the melding of both Japanese and European craft.

Keiji Ashizawa Design created a textured concrete aggregate facade for the seven-storey building, which is punctuated with steel-lined balconies and overlooks Yoyogi Park's lush treetops.

The studio worked with Norm Architects to design the minimalist interior, accessed via a copper-clad entrance.

A total of 20 guest rooms and five suites were dressed in a muted colour and material palette featuring hardwood flooring and plush Hotta Carpet-designed rugs informed by traditional Japanese architecture.

Delicate rattan partition walls delineate spaces within the rooms, which open out onto the building's balconies that were fitted with slanted ceilings in order to encourage sunlight into each room "as if mimicking the gentle transitions of a day".

"It's been an interesting journey for us to find the right balance between a space that is relaxed and vibrant at the same time," said Norm Architects co-founder Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.

The rooms are also characterised by paper-cord chairs and tapered washi pendant lights as well as abstract artworks, amorphous vases and grainy floor-to-ceiling bathroom tiles.

On the ground floor, oak seating designed by Norm Architects for Karimoku features in the hotel restaurant, which includes a striking copper-clad pizza oven and the same rattan accents that can be found in the guest rooms.

"It is a very unique and gratifying experience in the sense that the architecture, interior and furniture, as well as the attention to detail, have created a space with such a strong sense of unity," said Keiji Ashizawa Design.

An open-air pool club is located on the sixth floor of the hotel.

Sand-blasted concrete flooring was paired with thin bluey-green tiles that make up the infinity swimming pool, which overlooks the park below.

A "glowing" firepit can also be set alight after dark, intended to create a soothing contrast with the bright Tokyo skyline.

The city's first Trunk Hotel opened in Shibuya in 2017, while the second location is an offbeat one-room hotel in the metropolis's Kagurazaka neighbourhood featuring its own miniature nightclub.

The photography is by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.

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Furniture crafted from driftwood, "dresses" made from thousands of wood pieces and lamps 3D printed from tatami-resin were some of the highlights of Designart Tokyo.

Taking place across the Japanese capital, the seventh edition of Designart Tokyo featured more than 100 exhibitions showcasing furniture, lighting and objects as well as art, interior design and fashion.

It was the first "normal" Designart Tokyo event since pandemic travel restrictions were fully lifted in Japan.

"We're emerging from a long tunnel," said Designart co-founder Akio Aoki of Miru Design. But, while there was more scope for international participation, the event seemed to focus principally on regional creators, mostly attracting a local audience of trade and public.

Dotted around key areas of the city and without the PR machine of a main trade fair, Designart Tokyo faces the challenge of trying to create visibility in an enormous city – working without government funding.

"It's a 'bring your own' event," Designart co-founder Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture told Dezeen.

A New Horizon exhibition was curated by Suzy Annetta, and aimed at cultural exchange in the region. Annetta, editor-in-chief of the Asia-Pacific-focused design magazine Design Anthology, brought together a themed selection of furniture and products from not only Japan but neighbouring countries including China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

Exhibition spaces were made available by various venue owners, including a lot of existing furniture showrooms and fashion stores, while the larger collective shows seemed largely reliant on corporate sponsorship.

Other venues, from shopping malls and department stores to galleries and railway arches were used to display works from a variety of young Japanese design talents, with Designart Tokyo supporting five designers under 30 to showcase their ideas.

Throughout these venues, there were a number of Japanese designers working with discarded or neglected materials and processes. Read on for works by seven of them:

Nature or Nurture by Daiki Tado

Visiting the coastlines of Japan, designer Daiki Tado became intrigued by driftwood washed up along the shore and its varying degrees of decay. Not only tumbled by the waves but also eaten by insects and bleached to a pale colour with time, the wood grain of the forest gives way to new characteristics and textures from the ocean.

At Tokyo Midtown, Tado presented a variety of colourful stools and benches constructed from pieces of found driftwood. He also showed sample pieces to explain his process, whereby he applied one colour to the wood before cutting away sections and applying a second colour, making the finished material less recognisable as driftwood.

Tado is a member of experimental design collective Multistandard.

Ink couture project by 21B Studio

At Tokyo Midtown, the trio of designers behind 21B Studio – Daijiro Arimura, Shotaro Tokioka and Kobayashi Yuya – presented one-off books and artworks made from textile waste from the print industry.

When the designers visited a printing press, they were attracted to the colourful fabrics piled up in a waste basket. These non-woven fabrics were previously used to clean the colour plates on the printing presses, soaking up the excess ink between jobs. The designers were drawn towards the "accidental" beauty of the patterns found on the discarded cloth.

They edited select cuttings from the discarded textiles and exhibited them as artworks and books. Their intention is to explore transposing some of the patterns to production textiles in the future.

Refoam by We+

Japanese design studio We+ presented furniture made entirely from waste polystyrene foam collected from fish markets and supermarkets in Tokyo.

Displayed as part of the upcycled objects at the A New Horizon exhibition, the studio presented a totem-shaped console and stools made entirely from the foam.

The process involves the designers constructing the furniture within the recycling facility, tightly packing blobs of the melted polystyrene directly into metal molds while it's still warm and malleable.

We+ is interested in intercepting the material's complicated recycling process, usually involving multiple processes in different countries, while adding value to single-use polystyrene.

Michi Kumiko by Mai Suzki 

Young designer Mai Suzki presented a collection of sculptures to mimic the silhouette of dresses as well as spherical lamps in an evocative installation at the Jida Design Museum in the Axis building.

The sculptures were hand-crafted using the ancient Japanese woodworking technique of kumiko, made by assembling small wooden pieces without the use of nails or glue.

Suzki encountered the technique during her second year of university and tracked down the only craftsman in Japan able to make a perfectly spherical Kumiko. She studied the unique technique until she became the second person able to do it.

She then modeled all of the parts of the spherical Kumiko in 3D and calculated the design of the parts using a database that she developed herself. Using this database she has developed new expressive forms, such as dresses, made from a combination of wooden and 3D printed pieces. Combining traditional craftsmanship and today's technology, she has revived the dwindling skill of kumiko.

Border by Rikiya Toyoshima and Taki Shomu

Showing in an empty space within the Seibu Shibuya department story, two designers from the PHAT design collective, Rikiya Toyoshima and Taki Shomu, presented furniture made from surplus hollow polycarbonate.

The transparent, lightweight yet strong material is normally used as an alternative to glass in doors and windows. But as each fixture is custom-made, there are many offcuts of uneven sizes discarded from production.

The designers processed this excess material into thin boards of uniform width which were used in the creation of stools, screens, lights and tables. The pieces were held together by caulking material used for gluing glass in interior construction.

Sori and Mukari by Ryo Suzuki

This pendant lamp and table were constructed from a material made of discarded tatami mats which were powdered and mixed with biodegradable resin. The tatami-resin was then 3D printed and creates a "knitted" and semi-transparent structure that changes its expression depending on the angle from which it is viewed.

These designs, created by Ryo Suzuki, were complemented by other interior items developed by Honoka, a group of product designers. Their Tatami ReFab Project aims to give new meaning to the traditional tatami material as it loses appeal in modern Japan.

Overdust by Atsushi Shindo

The exhibition design for the group exhibition showcased at the Designart Gallery was composed by Atsushi Shindo. As well as the featured furniture, lighting and accessories in the exhibition, attention turned to the display plinths as well as spatial partitions which were made from reclaimed acrylic panels.

A mass-consumed relic of the Covid-19 pandemic, multiple acrylic panels were stacked together to create monolithic transparent plinths.

On the top layer of each plinth was an opaque sheet material made from heat-pressing chipped up pieces of the acrylic, a process developed by Shindo. In addition, he developed latticed space partitions from the discarded acrylic sheets.

In total, the exhibition used ten tonnes of reclaimed panels, only a tiny percentage of the huge stockpiles of discarded acrylic being stored in warehouses following the pandemic.

Dezeen is a media partner of Designart Tokyo, which took place at various locations across Tokyo from 20 to 29 October. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Lush plants and gravel beds feature in the Tokyo offices of real estate company Mitsui & Co, which local interior studio Flooat has designed to be "as stress-free as possible".

The workspace is located on the third floor of a 1980s office block in Chiyoda, a special district of Tokyo that is also home to the Imperial Palace.

Flooat set out to bring new value to the outdated building, creating a working environment that could be "cherished and used for a long time".

"In this project, we aimed to create a space that is considerate to both people and the environment by updating the charm of an old building and showing its new value in Tokyo, where there is a notably high rebuilding rate," the studio told Dezeen.

The practice was presented with a space that was dark and awkward, with a corridor running down the middle of a long, narrow floor.

Flooat's solution involved reducing the interior to a "skeleton" and eliminating the corridor to create a semi-open space for Mitsui & Co's employees.

The remaining walls were adjusted to a height and position that would not block any natural light.

"The walls are constructed to match the architectural module, giving a sense of depth while dead-end flow lines have been eliminated so that the space can be viewed from various angles," the studio said.

"The result is a harmony of function and aesthetic with a clean, simple look."

The surrounds of the windows were deepened and lined with grainy matt-finish teak to bring warmth and character to the office while softening the direct sunlight.

The same timber was also used to wrap around walls, floors, windows and doors.

"To create harmony in the space, we selected trees with similar characteristics," Flooat said. "Employees spend a lot of time in the office, so we aim to create a natural space that is as stress-free as possible."

Flooat used partitions at various heights, alongside different floor levels and furniture heights to create dedicated areas for different modes of working.

Sofas and low tables were installed close to windows, allowing visitors to sit and take in the outside world in a relaxed environment.

Long communal tables provide space for focused work while another area serves as a lounge where Mitsui & Co's staff can mingle with others in the building.

"Instead of sitting in the same seat all the time, we have created an environment where people can move around, creating opportunities for communication and a natural flow of people in the office," the studio said.

Different zones are demarcated via narrow tracts of gravel laid into troughs in the floor.

"Borders are indicated in such a way as to give every area its own independence, evoking the pleasing features of a Japanese landscape garden with a tea house," the studio said.

"The pebble is a sign for switching spaces, a modern representation of the uniquely Japanese way of communicating signs."

Plants with lush green foliage introduce a soft organic element to the space, providing a link to nature within the city.

"We placed large plants on the symbolic tables where people tend to congregate," the studio said.

"We also considered the shadows created by the trees as an element of comfort. Organic, natural shapes also help to reduce tension and create a cosy atmosphere."

A cavernous meeting room pod is set into one of the partition walls, enveloped in a grey textile surround that was chosen for its sound-absorbing qualities.

"This gives the impression of a cave," the studio said. "Once inside, the space gives a sense of security and allows people to concentrate on communication. It's a place where you don't have to worry about other people's eyes and voices."

For the furniture, Flooat chose enduring design pieces that date back to before the building's construction in 1983, in a bid to create a sense of timelessness.

"We wanted to revive the interior of an old building and choose furniture that would be appropriate for a place that will still be used in the future," said Flooat.

"We used furniture in the lounge space that was designed in the 1960s, for example, and is still being produced today."

Mitsui & Co's office has been shortlisted in the small workplace interior category of this year's Dezeen Awards.

Also in the running is the office of digital artist Andrés Reisinger, with surreal details that nod to his otherworldly renderings, and the library of the Cricket Club of India, which is nestled amongst tree-like wooden columns.

The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.

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Japanese studio Schemata Architects has designed Komaeyu, a public bathhouse in the suburbs of Tokyo that features turquoise tiling, a sauna and a bandai – a bar and reception area for socialising.

Schemata Architects renovated the existing public Komaeyu bathhouse, or sento, with the aim of making it more welcoming to the public.

Located in a reinforced-concrete building in Tokyo's Komae suburb, the existing bathhouse studio was refreshed while a vacant lot nearby was transformed into a space where visitors can relax and enjoy a drink after their bath.

Schemata Architects, which is headed by architect Jo Nagasaka, referenced a defunct bathhouse in Kyoto when designing Komaeyu.

"Komaeyu is inspired by Nishikiyu, a bathhouse in Kyoto that no longer exists," Nagasaka told Dezeen.

The state of disrepair in the Nishikiyu sento ended up inspiring the design of Komaeyu, which has turquoise tiling and signage made from the patterns formed by the gaps between the tiles.

"Tiles in Nishikiyu were damaged, peeled off and repaired during the long history and it turned out to be like patchwork," Nagasaka said. "You realised this condition gradually when you were having a bath and dazed."

"I aimed to design this kind of tiles and patchwork with slight differences, so I made 1:1, 1:2 and 2:2 sizes of tiles and lined up these along with floors and walls of the bath in Komaeyu," he added.

"The signage is composed of these tiles and the gaps between them, which was designed by Village, the graphic design team led by Rikako Nagashima."

The tiles that decorate the walls of the 302-square-metre bathhouse were custom-made in Tajimi.

Their green hue was chosen in reference to the greenery that surrounds the bathhouse, which is located in a part of Tokyo where old culverts have been turned into green spaces.

Schemata Architects also followed the custom of public baths in east Japan and created an image of Mount Fuji from tiles near the bathhouse's reception area, which houses the bandai.

The bathhouse is divided into two areas, one for men and one for women, which are separated by a 2.3-metre-high wall that does not reach all the way to the ceiling – a common design in bathhouses in Japan.

"It seems that it was a communal bath with no boundary between men and women in the Edo period, but morals were disturbed and people built a wall between them," Nagasaka said.

"This gap between wall and ceiling is common in public baths and we think it is a trace of an Edo-period custom."

A number of traditional bathhouses have disappeared from Japan, as people shower in the morning rather than going to a public bathhouse, but Komaeyu now draws both older customers and a younger clientele that is attracted by its saunas.

"Female customers are especially noticeable," Nagasaka said. "In other saunas, there are more men than women, but here there are about the same number of women."

"It's nice to see women relaxing and enjoying a beer after the bath without makeup," Nagasaka added.

"And sometimes, high school students stop by on their way home from sports activities."

In the months since the bathhouse opened in April, it has become a "community hub", the studio said.

"Komaeyu seems like a kind of third place that both men and women and old and young people can enjoy," Nagasaka concluded.

This is the second bathhouse that the studio has designed, after it updated the Koganeyu bathhouse, also in Tokyo. It was this project that led to Schemata Architects being chosen to design Komaeyu.

The studio also recently added a guesthouse and a bar to a coastal home in Japan.

The photography is by Ju Yeon Lee.

Project credits:

Architect: Jo Nagasaka / Schemata Architects
Project team: Shota Miyashita, Takuya Enta
Graphic design: Village
Structural Consulting: Ladderup architects
Construction: TANK (architecture), Sankyo Corporation (water works), Toyama Tile Limited Liability Company (tile works), Thermarivm (sauna)

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Klein Dytham Architecture has aimed to counter rock music snobbery with its design for guitar brand Fender's Tokyo flagship store, which is meant to feel welcoming to people who might feel judged in other guitar stores.

The Fender store sits across the bottom four floors of the glass-walled Ice Cubes building, a 12,000-square-metre space in the neighbourhood of Harajuku that was formerly home to an H&M store.

It is the world's first flagship store for the 77-year-old American brand, which is one of the most recognisable names in guitars and is particularly known for electric models like the Stratocaster.

For the project, Fender asked Klein Dytham Architecture to create a space that would counter the perception of guitar stores as being intimidating, particularly for women and newer players.

It hoped the store would offer a sophisticated and immersive retail experience that would encourage leisurely browsing and communicate the brand's heritage.

Klein Dytham Architecture answered the brief with a store design it sees as creating "a destination of discovery", with gallery exhibits, an event space, a cafe and a "care bar" for repairs.

The first floor houses the main browsing area, which features undulating wood benches and display units that are meant to echo the curves and materials of a Fender guitar. These contours are further mimicked in the lighting above.

The area also has custom plectrum-shaped tables where staff can place guitars they have removed from the display to show customers. Clothing racks holding the F is for Fender streetwear collection sit among the guitars.

The second floor, which was realised in a soft grey palette, is primarily an exhibition space called the Artists Gallery.

Here, large-scale photos and video shows famous musicians in action, each one alongside a transparent display case housing their Fender of choice.

There are also displays dedicated to Japanese- and American-designed Fenders respectively, and a sound-proofed Amp Room where customers can test run guitars and amps.

On the darker and moodier third floor, another exhibition space — the Master Builders Gallery — focuses on the work of specific craftspeople, while two VIP rooms and a custom shop are furnished with comfortable couches and provide a setting for discussing bespoke builds.

Also on this floor is a colourful display of 400 guitar finish samples that fills the length of one wall.

The final floor is the basement, which houses an event space, cafe and the Fender care bar, and where Klein Dytham Architecture endeavoured to create a cosier feel with a plectrum-shaped rug and benches.

Tying the floors together is a spiral staircase with a hall-of-fame-style photo gallery on the interior, as well as a three-storey-high vertical LED display on the glass facade outside that will be used for Fender-related content.

"Conceived as a hub and clubhouse for all things Fender, this project takes the notion of a flagship store and experiential retail to beyond the next level," Klein Dytham Architecture co-founder Mark Dytham told Dezeen.

Dytham started the practice with fellow Royal College of Art graduate Astrid Klein in Tokyo in 1991. Some of their recent work includes the PokoPoko clubhouse for the Risonare Nasu hotel in rural Japan and a Cartier store with an intricate wooden facade in Osaka.

Photography by Nacása & Partners.

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Designer Keiji Ashizawa has devised the interiors of The Conran Shop Daikanyama in Tokyo, which is located inside a building by architect Fumihiko Maki and spotlights products from Japan and Asia.

The latest outpost from British retailer The Conran Shop is located in the modernist Hillside Terrace in Daikanyama, a quiet area close to the Tokyo city centre.

The complex was designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Maki and constructed between 1967 and 1992.

Ashizawa aimed to take the existing architecture of the two-storey building into consideration when designing the interior of The Conran Shop.

"Since the existing space had great potential, we knew that the work had to be put into elevating what was already there – thinking about the proportions of the space, the dry area and so on," he told Dezeen.

"Although it is inside a well-known architecture, there were elements where we thought we could bring change to the inside."

These changes included turning one glass section into a solid wall.

"Glass walls were used extensively as part of the architectural concept so that the store space could be viewed through the layers of glass," Ashizawa said.

"While building the store, we decided that there wouldn't be a problem in making a section of the glass wall become a solid wall, considering its serenity as a space and its relationship with the street."

The designer created the 200-square-metre store to look like someone's home, in a nod to the peaceful nature of the surrounding area. It features a large atrium on the ground floor, connecting it to an adjoining courtyard.

"Daikanyama is a very calm neighbourhood in Tokyo, where we wished to design a store where people could feel relaxed and away from the stimulation of the city," Ashizawa said.

"We intended to create a space for people to stay for a long period of time and feel the space."

The interior design was also based on The Conran Shop's three keywords – plain, simple and useful – CEO of The Conran Shop Japan Shinichiro Nakahara told Dezeen.

The store's product selection also places a special focus on Japanese and Asian design.

"Specifically for The Conran Shop Daikanyama, the selections were focused on objects from Asia, including Japan," Nakahara said.

"The process of [founder] Terence [Conran] travelling around the world, finding and buying items in each place by himself, has not changed," he added. "Many of the objects selected by the Conran team in Japan have a sense of craftsmanship."

"We created the space by imagining a situation in which such objects would be displayed alongside each other. For example, the details of the objects are reflected in the interior design."

The interior uses materials that are common in Japan including concrete, steel, wood, plaster, Japanese stone and paper.

"The use of Japanese paper in interior design is an element that is distinctively Japanese," Ashizawa explained.

"Shoji screens are an important element in creating a Japanese-style room but I realize that they can also be well used in both functional and aesthetic ways in a modern space."

The studio also used Japanese paper that had been dyed in a grey hue as wallpaper to give the space a "soft and contemporary feel."

"Since we weren't building an actual house but rather a home-like Conran store, the materials were thoughtfully instrumented to achieve a balance," Ashizawa said.

The ground floor of the store holds furniture, homeware and apparel, and also has a mezzanine floor that is accessible by a staircase featuring a handrail made from black paper cords.

Ashizawa designed the basement floor, which functions both as an additional shopping area and a gallery space, to have a calmer atmosphere.

"Filled with natural light, the ground floor uses colours that bring grandeur and a sense of calmness," he said.

"The basement floor is toned to create a more private feeling. We respected the natural colours of the materials as much as possible, while also considering the harmony with the objects on display and in the gallery."

The Conran Shop Daikanyama also has an adjoining bar where visitors can enjoy teas such as sencha and macha.

Ashizawa has previously worked on a number of other projects in Tokyo, including the Bellustar Tokyo "hotel in the sky" and the Hiroo Residence.

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Local studio I IN has renovated two toilets in a Tokyo shopping centre, using lights that "propose new colours for genders" to create vivid interiors.

The interior design studio completely renovated the two toilets, which are located on the restaurant floor of the shopping centre Shin-Marunouchi in Chiyoda City, Tokyo.

It began by wrapping both restrooms in white tiles to give them a clean feel that would also function as an unobtrusive background for the coloured lights.

"We used a mosaic tile by Dinaone that is made in the Tajimi area, which is famous for tile-making in Japan, and it has a special non-slip treatment on its surface," I IN told Dezeen.

"We wrapped the space in tiles to express the feeling of cleanliness; we think public restrooms need to offer a sense of purity so that this whole space can be cleaned easily," the studio continued.

"Our aim was also to create a continuous floor, wall and ceiling using one material so that people can experience entering an unrealistic space."

The all-white interior was then enhanced by hidden light fixtures that colour the female bathroom entirely yellow, while the male bathroom is all green.

"The main aim was to propose new colours for genders," the studio said.

"The universal toilet signage is usually red and blue – we wanted to bring them closer together. In rainbow colours, which define diversity, yellow and green are next to each other."

The colours of the toilets can be changed for seasonal events, but will otherwise remain yellow and green.

The studio also designed sinks especially for the toilets, in which almost all the functions are hidden away to help create tidy spaces with a futuristic feel.

"We used silver metal – stainless steel – to create original sink designs for both the women's and the men's room," I IN said.

"Here, you do not see typical equipment such as faucets, soap dispensers and hand dryers; these are designed inside the counters but you can easily find and use them," it added.

"As the space is all about new restroom experiences, we designed a new experience for washing hands as well."

I IN collaborated with architecture and engineering studio Mitsubishi Jisho Design on the design.

The studio hopes that the washrooms will create a memorable experience for visitors.

"The sensation of being saturated by the color of light transforms all elements of the restroom experience into something extraordinary, leaving a powerful lasting impression on the visitor," the studio concluded.

I IN was longlisted for emerging interior design studio of the year at Dezeen Awards 2022 and has previously overhauled a 1980s apartment in Tokyo to give it an understated luxury feel.

The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.

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Two cantilevered stacked volumes of contrasting materials form Laxus, a new home designed by Japanese studio Apollo Architects & Associates.

Located on a corner plot in the Ota Ward of Tokyo, the house was designed by Apollo Architects & Associates for a client with a love of walnut wood and contemporary Italian furniture.

The two stacked cubes that comprise the home were designed to "create a continuity between the interior and exterior while ensuring privacy and security," Apollo principal architect Satoshi Kurosaki told Dezeen.

"The exterior materials are different each floor, resulting in a highly abstract building."

The ground floor volumes built from board-formed, exposed concrete, while the upper floor was clad in contrasting black composite lumber.

The upper volume projects over the front of the lower volume, creating a covered entrance to the home and a carport area.

On entering the home, a hallway leads to the master bedroom and children's room. Both these rooms overlook an enclosed terrace with trees and shrubs.

"The building is enclosed by a high concrete wall imprinted with the Japanese cedar formwork used to make it, which blocks views of the interior from the street," Kurosaki explained.

Stairs lead up to the open plan living and kitchen area on the first floor, which has a vaulted ceiling clad in warm walnut wood.

A long skylight runs above the staircase to the north, with integrated louvres to temper the effects of the sun's rays on the internal space.

The living area opens out onto a second enclosed terrace. Large plate glass windows bring natural light from this outdoor space into the living and dining space.

The bathroom on this floor also overlooks the terrace. The bathtub is positioned in front of the window to give views into this green space when bathing.

Founded in 2000 by Kurosaki, Apollo Architects & Associates is based in Tokyo. The studio's previous projects include a home that blurs indoor and outdoor spaces and a residence that is arranged around a series of hidden courtyards.

The photography is by Masao Nishikawa.

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Japanese designer Keiji Ashizawa and Danish studio Norm Architects have unveiled their design for the Bellustar Tokyo hotel, which aims to evoke a sense of nature in the middle of Tokyo's urban Shinjuku district.

The two studios worked together to design interiors for five penthouse suites as well as hospitality spaces for the top floors of the Bellustar Tokyo, 200 metres above the ground in Shinjuku's Kabukicho tower.

Norm Architects and Keiji Ashizawa Design had to take the city views from the building into account when designing the hotel rooms, which are spread over three levels from the 45th to the 47th floor.

"I would say that it is the tallest hotel I have worked on," Ashizawa told Dezeen, describing it as "a quiet hotel in the sky of Shinjuku".

"Since there are no nearby buildings at this elevation, there was no need to be concerned about privacy, and it feels surreal that the views from all the windows are almost always spectacular," he added.

"That is why the relationship between views from the windows and the space is indeed very simple."

Both studios were involved in the spatial organisation of the five penthouse suites as well as the placement of the hotel's three restaurants, its top-floor spa and a penthouse lounge designed for guests to enjoy the setting sun.

Ashizawa and Norm Architects drew on their signature use of natural materials and muted palettes to create the interiors for the five guestrooms.

These were informed by the "beauty of the four seasons in Japan" and have names such as Hana (wind) and Tsuki (moon).

The rooms have been furnished with pieces by the studios' Karimoku Case Study series for wood furniture company Karimoku and feature a mix of natural materials.

"The use of organic forms and natural materials like wood and stone can be seen as an antidote to the city that serves as artworks through the grand windows," the studios said.

Among the tactile details in the guest rooms are stone-topped bedside tables and wood-panelled headboards.

"The idea is to create a balance of hardness and softness against the large area of the room that will be covered with textiles," Ashizawa said.

As the guestrooms have floor-to-ceiling windows, the bedrooms and living rooms feature benches and curtains that were added "to create a little distance from the view to make the space feel more comfortable," Ashizawa explained.

A colour palette of mainly white, ivory and gray was used throughout the Bellustar Tokyo, which is a Pan Pacific hotel, with darker colours creating contrast in some of the spaces.

"The color palette is what we and Norm Architects consider to be the colors of nature, and we hope to create a sense of richness by evoking nature in Shinjuku, the most Tokyo-like place in the city," Ashizawa said.

"As an antidote to the city, we have tried to listen to nature's story of artistry, optimism, imperfection, and impermanence, and bring these poignant qualities into the work," Norm Architects added.

Ashizawa also used tiles and handcrafted details to create more tactile walls in some areas of the hotel, including in the main restaurant, which has custom-made tiles from Japan.

The Bellustar Tokyo features three restaurants: the main restaurant and bar, which was designed solely by Ashizawa, as well as a sushi restaurant and a teppanyaki restaurant.

Here, the studios worked with material palettes that include wood and brick.

"The sushi and teppanyaki restaurants are designed to feel like small hidden and intimate traditional city restaurants but transformed into contemporary places on the top of Tokyo," Norm Architects said.

"Both restaurants have their own unique character and material palette where the sushi restaurant is bright and works with hinoki [cypress wood], the teppanyaki place is dark and dominated by dark bricks in creative patterns."

The studios hope that by using natural materials and muted colours, the Bellustar Tokyo will function as a refuge from the busy city.

"We hope that the guests of the hotel will first experience the vibrant atmosphere of the Shinjuku Kabukicho district of Tokyo, and then enjoy the serenity of the penthouse interior – as if the lively Tokyo scenery were like a Zen temple's karesansui (dry landscape garden)," Ashizawa said.

Previous projects by Keiji Ashizawa Design include the Hiroo Residence overlooking Tokyo's Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park and the Kyoto showroom for Karimoku.

Norm Architects recently created a headquarters for children's brand Liewood and an inside-out greenhouse restaurant in Sweden.

Project credits:

Interior architecture: Keiji Ashizawa Design: Keiji Ashizawa, Mariko Irie, Kenji Kawami, Yuichiro Takei. Norm Architects: Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen, Peter Eland, Frederik Werner
Bellustar penthouse (five penthouses): Keiji Ashizawa Design and Norm Architects
Bellustar restaurant and bar: Keiji Ashizawa Design
Spa Sunya: Keiji Ashizawa Design
Furniture, fixtures and equipment: Keiji Ashizawa Design and Norm Architects

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Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto has unveiled a public toilet that incorporates a communal hand-washing basin, as the final instalment of the Tokyo Toilet project.

Replacing a toilet block near the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel in downtown Tokyo, the Fujimoto-designed structure is the 17th toilet built in the city as part of the Tokyo Toilet project.

It includes toilets designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winners Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando, Fumihiko Maki and Shigeru Ban.

Fujimoto's toilet block was designed to resemble a large sink and incorporates a communal hand-washing area.

"One could say that public toilets are a watering place in the middle of a city, a spring that supplies the town," said the Japanese architect.

"They are available to various people who will use it for different reasons in addition to using the toilet, and I wanted to propose a space for washing hands as a public watering place."

An open-air corridor separates the all-white toilet block from the elliptical basin that has four taps set at different heights.

"It is one vessel that is for everyone," explained Fujimoto.

"The shape, with a large depression in the middle, includes places for people of various heights to wash their hands, so that everyone from children to older people can wash their hands within this vessel, creating a small community of people refreshing themselves and conversing," he added.

"I hope this will be a new kind of public space, where people can gather surrounded by water."

The male and female toilets block are accessed from the open-air corridor, while a disabled toilet and child-changing area has a separate entrance at the end of the building.

As with the exteriors, the toilets' interiors are entirely white with recessed lights positioned around the walls.

Fujimoto's toilet block is the latest completed as part of the project, which is funded by the Nippon Foundation.

Other toilets include a trio of mushroom-like blocks designed by Ito, a cedar-clad public toilet designed by Kengo Kuma and a pair of transparent blocks designed by Shigeru Ban.

Photography is by Satoshi Nagare for The Nippon Foundation.

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Traditional Japanese materials and details are fused with contemporary finishes at C4L House in Tokyo, designed by local studio Cubo Design Architects.

Informed by traditional Japanese construction, the home was designed by Cubo Design Architects to celebrate "the warmth of things made by hand".

It was created in collaboration with several local artisans working with carpentry, paper and lacquer, and references Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki's 1933 essay In Praise of Shadows as well as the concept of wabi-sabi – the acceptance of imperfection.

"As Junichiro Tanizaki writes, there are materials and furnishings whose beauty and comfort can only be fully appreciated in the half-light of a traditional home," said studio founder Hitoshi Saruta.

"We believe houses that are rooted in an understanding of Japan's cultural context and a respect for the skills and innovations of our ancestors, which can nevertheless be passed onto future generations, are the kind of houses we should be building in Japan today," he continued.

The entrance to C4L House leads past a shallow pool and into a ground-floor lounge. Here, both polished and natural stone walkways pass beds of rocks and plants, surrounded by textured plaster walls and delicately carved wooden screens.

On the first floor, the same palette of wood and stone has been used for the bedrooms but with a more contemporary approach. It is married with Japanese paper walls and a dark carpeted sleeping area with a bed screened by braided cords.

The bathroom areas include a sunken stone bath and curved timber sauna, while a tearoom has been finished using traditional Japanese carpentry techniques and tatami flooring.

Wood-framed sliding doors open out onto small balcony areas that overlook the ground-floor lounge, allowing for a visual juxtaposition between rough and smooth, light and dark.

"We paid close attention to the contrast between light and dark, creating both subdued areas that express the beauty of weak light and more dynamic areas filled with strong light," explained Saruta.

"Traditional artisans transformed soil, trees and other natural materials into a wide range of architectural forms," Saruta continued.

"Illuminated by beautiful light, these forms became spaces with great depth."

At the top of C4L House on the second floor, a living, dining and kitchen area is set back to make space for a south-facing terrace, sheltered by the large, wood-lined overhang of the roof.

Cubo Design Architect is led by architect Saruta and is based in Tokyo. Previous projects by the studio include a concrete and blackened wood-clad home in Odawara, designed to create the feeling of being suspended in mid-air.

Elsewhere in Japan, Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL recently created a home and studio with a sweeping curved facade.

The photography is by Koji Fujii / TOREAL, Takashi Yasui.

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Specialist toilet designer Junko Kobayashi has created a public toilet within a series of weathering steel cylinders as her contribution to the Tokyo Toilet project.

Set under the Sasazuka Station metro station in central Tokyo, Kobayashi's toilet was designed to be fun and distinctive, while having a civic presence.

"Like the stubborn old man in the town, I wanted to create a toilet that would have a strong presence and brightly watch over the people in the neighborhood, while at the same time providing a sense of fun," said Kobayashi.

"The opening is wide, and the toilet is solid yet open, and the inside is bright, clean, and safe."

From the street, the toilet block appears to be a series of cylindrical blocks built from weathering steel topped by a bright yellow disc supported on the central cylinder.

This central space contains a disabled toilet along with baby-changing facilities.

It is flanked by entrances to the men's toilets on the left and women's on the right, which wrap around the central cylinder.

Alongside the main block, a pair of cylinders contain children's toilets, while a water fountain is located nearby.

Kobayashi choose to build the structure from weathering steel due to its durability and strength along with its texture.

To add whimsy to the project, a series of round holes cut into the weathering steel contain graphics of bunnies.

The toilet is the latest in the Tokyo Toilet project, which has seen 16 toilets designed by leading architects and designers built in central Tokyo.

Specialist toilet designer Kobayashi contributed to the project as she believes that public toilets are needed within cities.

"The reason why I participated in the project is because I thought that this project would be a challenge to solve the problems that I have had for a long time, and that it would have great social significance," said Kobayashi.

"Over the past 37 years, we have been involved in the design of more than 250 public toilets, and we believe that public toilets are the most difficult and meaningful toilets," she continued.

"This project is trying to create an opportunity to reconsider once again that 'public toilets are the property of all citizens'."

As part of the project Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner Toyo Ito also created a toilet within a series of cylindrical blocks, while fellow Pritzker winner Shigeru Ban designed two transparent toilets.

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Designer Miles Pennington and DLX Design Lab of the University of Tokyo have designed a public toilet in Japan that can be used as an exhibition space, cinema, pop-up kiosk, information centre or meeting place.

Pennington, who is a professor of design-led innovation at the University of Tokyo and the DLX Design Lab, designed the toilet as a community space at the intersection of three roads in the Hatagaya district of Tokyo.

"This is a community space that happens to have toilets too," said Pennington.

"We would love the community in Sasazuka and Hatagaya to make use of the space, as a gallery, a meeting location, or whatever they would like it to be. Bring it to life and as far as the toilets are concerned, let nature take its course!"

The toilets are arranged around a large covered area that the designers envision as a multi-functional space.

Within it are expansive white walls, designed to hang artworks or display films projected from an overhead projector.

To allow this open space to be used by the community in a variety of ways, the team designed a seating system that can easily be adapted.

A series of bollard-like structures are embedded within the ground and can be raised and connected with long timber-covered sections to create benches in various formations.

Surrounding the covered space, the team created three triangular structures that contain the toilet facilities.

A male toilet occupies the right-hand triangle, while unisex cubicles that contain changing stations were placed on the left-hand side and rear.

Pennington hopes that creating a community space within the toilet block will give the building additional meaning.

"Public toilets can often become underused, lose their value to people and gradually forgotten," he said. "To try and reverse that trend we created this toilet."

"We hope that it will be used as an exhibition space, pop-up kiosk, small information centre or a cozy meeting space, and become the centre of the local community," he continued.

The toilet was created as part of the Tokyo Toilet project, which is run by the non-profit Nippon Foundation and will see 17 public toilets built in the city.

Previous toilets include structures by three Pritzker Architecture Prize winners. Shigeru Ban designed a pair of transparent blocks, Tadao Ando created a circular toilet and Fumihiko Maki built a toilet with a "cheerful roof".

The photography is by Satoshi Nagare, courtesy of the Nippon Foundation.

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UK designer Thomas Heatherwick's studio has revealed plans for The British School in Tokyo, which will be the first school the practice has designed.

Located in the Azabudai Hills development in Tokyo's Minato City area, the 15,000 square-metre school was designed to give students access to numerous outdoor spaces.

"Most inner-city schools don't have enough playground space and the site was quite restricted," Heatherwick Studio partner Neil Hubbard said.

"So we wedged playgrounds between each of the classrooms, creating outdoor learning spaces where pupils can explore and interact with each other and their teachers much more freely than in traditional school environments."

The British School in Tokyo will have a brick-clad facade and a stacked design, with overlapping terraces and outdoor areas designed as social spaces for 800 students from over 50 countries.

"The brick spandrels nod to the materiality of the historic Azabudai post office and undulate to create open balconies and variety along the elevation," Hubbard said.

"It's a little bit playful, like a school should be."

It will also feature planted balconies and include spaces for independent and group learning.

The school building will house two libraries, music studios, an art studio, a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) centre, two sports pitches, a dance studio, a sports hall and an indoor swimming pool.

Heatherwick Studio, which is led by designer Heatherwick, is also designing the public realm surrounding the school, including a 6,000 square-metre landscaped square.

The school, which was commissioned by Toranomon-Azabudai District Urban Redevelopment Association, is the first-ever to be designed by Heatherwick Studio and will open in August 2023.

Heatherwick Studio recently opened its first overseas office in Shanghai, China, and announced it is designing a public park with a "motorcycle amphitheatre" for motorcycle brand Harley Davidson.

The images are courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.

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Designer Keiji Ashizawa used muted tones to make the most of the sunlight in this apartment in central Tokyo, which features wooden art pieces and furniture that was specially designed for the space.

For the Hiroo Residence, named after its location in the city's Hiroo neighbourhood, Ashizawa wanted to underline the quality of the light in the flat.

In the open-plan kitchen and living room, light streams in from a balcony, and the designer took advantage of this light source by creating a cut-out wall so that the light carries through to the hallway next to it.

"I think you can see we have a very nice sunlight here," he told Dezeen during a walkthrough of the apartment. "So I didn't want to use white, as it would be too bright – instead I used muted, subtle tones."

He also wanted Hiroo Residence to feel like a peaceful place to come home to in a busy city, using natural materials to create a calm ambience.

"Outside it's super noisy but inside it's very quiet, so I chose muted tones that also fuse with the materials; the wood and the stone," Ashizawa said.

The tranquil 200-square-metre apartment, which overlooks the Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park, has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a kitchen and dining area, a small workspace and plenty of storage spaces.

Before designing the interior, Ashizawa changed the layout of the flat to make it more open, taking out an existing hallway to create a bigger dining space.

"Our goal was to design a space that can only be created by meticulously crafting from the smallest detail to the furniture, resulting in a quiet, comforting, and inspiring atmosphere with little noise, surrounded by natural materials crafted with tactility," Ashizawa said of the design.

He worked with the Japanese wooden furniture company Karimoku on the project, which is the eighth in its Karimoku Case Study series that sees it collaborate with architects on bespoke furniture and interior projects.

As a result, wood was used throughout Hiroo Residence, with white-stained oak covering many of the floors.

Ashizawa also worked with Karimoku to create wooden window frames and sliding doors, which were placed throughout the flat to add privacy without taking up too much space.

The furniture matches the wooden interior details and includes two pieces created especially for the project – a sideboard with decorative wooden slats and a dining chair with a woven seat that was inspired by both Shaker designs and classic Scandinavian chairs.

In the bedroom of Hiroo Residence, wooden wall panels add a tactile and more natural feel, which is echoed in the built-in shelves and drawers in the en-suite walk-in closet.

Cabinets were also used to hide different functions in the kitchen, where a large wooden unit takes up an entire wall.

Even smaller details in the flat, such as the long kitchen lamp, were made from the material.

Artworks in wood by Danish art studio Atelier Plateau and the artist Sara Martinsen, which were created especially for the space,  decorate the walls.

Karimoku has worked with Ashizawa on a number of projects, including its second showroom which just opened in Kyoto, Japan, and the Azabu Residence Case Study, where the designer referenced mid-century American design.

The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.

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A pyramidal staircase and delicate washi accents feature in the Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition created by Shohei Shigematsu to explore connections between the fashion house and Japan.

Held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the show is an extensive Dior retrospective that has previously been exhibited in London, Denver and New York.

Architect Shigematsu, a partner at Dutch studio OMA, created various new sets for the Tokyo edition spread across two floors and 15 rooms within the museum.

The show intends to highlight Dior's relationship with Japanese culture over its 76-year history, including brand collaborations and garments that draw upon traditional silhouettes, according to OMA.

One room called Dior and Japan is characterised by a meandering floor-to-ceiling pathway constructed from wood and clad in Awagami – a type of inkjet washi paper sourced from the country's Tokushima prefecture.

Mannequins dressed in various Japan-informed Dior garments were placed atop the winding structure, which takes cues from the ethereal floats that parade through the Aomori region during the Nebuta festival.

"We wanted to create an immersive experience where visitors could also revel in discovering the House of Dior's roots and inspirations from Japan," Shigematsu told Dezeen.

Another installation known as The Dior Ball features an oversized pyramidal staircase that takes cues from the "long, processional stairs" that lead to traditional shrines, which is amplified by a mirrored roof that reflects the structure.

Clothed in 35 pieces of Dior haute-couture, mannequins are inserted into the staircase's deep-set platforms and illuminated by changing animations.

"We wanted to create a stage for storytelling that feels very tectonic and modern but grounded in the restrained and disciplined beauty authentic to Japanese culture," explained Shigematsu.

"The scenography merges Japanese traditional spaces, materials, and techniques, with very grand, contemporary shapes and architectural forms."

Elsewhere, Japanese Kiri-e artist Ayumi Shibata created an immersive "garden" of paper flowers as an homage to the fashion house's 1947 perfume Miss Dior and Corolle, the brand's first collection launched the same year.

Among the exhibition's many other rooms, sets from previous editions of the show have been reinstated – including a colour-coded, encyclopedia-style cluster of 359 Dior objects set against a curved wall.

Shigematsu reflected on the importance of scenography when curating a fashion exhibition.

"The fashion exhibition as a typology is relatively new but has quickly become the blockbuster shows for museums and institutions," said the architect. "That speaks to the potential of fashion to draw an extremely diverse audience, as well as its narrative potential."

"I believe a fashion exhibition is inherently a multi-faceted communication tool. It wants to reveal history, process, technique, materiality, movement and relevance to contemporary contexts – more so than say, a painting show would," he added.

"We looked at Japan through the lens of Dior and looked at the world through the lens of Japan’s history, culture, and fashion."

Shigematsu also created the exhibition design for the Dior retrospective when it travelled to Dallas, Texas, by using an array of colours and materials.

The photography is by Daici Ano, courtesy of Dior. 

Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams is on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo from 21 December 2022 to 28 May 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Japanese graphic designer Tomohito Ushiro has completed the Hiroo East Park toilet in central Tokyo as the latest addition to the Tokyo Toilet project.

Built within the Hiroo East Park, the toilet features a large light panel that circles through 7.9 billion different light patterns, in a reference to the world's population at the point the project was conceived.

Created to replace a red brick block that was previously on the site, the concrete structure has a glazed rear wall that encloses the light panel.

Ushiro, who is the founder of agency White Design, hopes that the toilet will act as a piece of public art and draw attention to the wider Tokyo Toilet project, which will see 17 toilets designed by leading architects and designers built in central Toyko.

"The location in a park, surrounded by greenery in an area where many people live, means that it is also like a piece of public art that is part of people's daily lives, and is always posing questions," said Ushiro.

"I hope this toilet will become a monument that continuously makes people think about the project's significance."

The artwork uses green lights during the day and white lights at night to create a series of continuously changing patterns so that the building always appears different to passers-by.

"The toilet can be said to have 7.9 billion lighting patterns – the same number as the world's population – because they change continuously, from sunlight filtering through the trees during the day to wafting in moonlight or a firefly flying about at night," said Ushiro.

"People will never see the same pattern twice."

The concrete block itself contains two square unisex toilet cubicles that contain baby chairs and changing stations.

The Hiroo East Park toilet is one of 14 toilets that have been unveiled so far as part of the Tokyo Toilet project, which is run by the non-profit Nippon Foundation. Earlier this week, a toilet designed by industrial designer Marc Newsom was revealed, while previous versions were designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Shigeru Ban, Tadao Ando and Fumihiko Maki.

The photography is by Satoshi Nagare, courtesy of the Nippon Foundation.

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Industrial designer Marc Newson has created a public toilet topped with a traditionally shaped copper roof in Shibuya as part of the Tokyo Toilet project.

Located under a raised highway to the north of Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, Newson's structure is the latest to be completed as part of the project that has seen toilets designed by architects including Tadao Ando, Fumihiko Maki and Shigeru Ban.

Made from concrete, Newson's simple structure was designed to be highly functional, with men's and women's toilets placed on either side of a central disabled toilet.

"It is important to me that the toilet feels trustworthy and honest inside and out: the bright interior is seamlessly and hygienically finished in a monochromatic green, one of my favourite colours," said Newsom.

"My design for the Toilet focuses on functionality, simplicity, and creating an inviting and enduring space."

Topped with a pitched copper roof, Newson's design was designed to feel familiar and was informed by traditional Japanese temples and tea rooms.

"Central to my design is the reference to vernacular Japanese architecture, including the copper Minoko roof," he said.

"Often found in shrines, temples and tearooms and in rural areas, I wanted the roof form to trigger a subconscious feeling of comfort and peacefulness amid its busy, hypermodern location," he continued.

"The patina on the copper pyramidic roof will integrate the structure into the city over time, so it becomes part of the fabric of Tokyo."

The toilet is the 14th to be completed as part of the Tokyo Toilet project, which is run by the non-profit Nippon Foundation.

Previous toilets include structures by three Pritzker Architecture Prize winners. Shigeru Ban created a pair of transparent blocks that are illuminated at night , Tadao Ando designed a circular toilet, while Fumihiko Maki topped his block with a "cheerful roof".

The photography is by  Satoshi Nagare, courtesy of the Nippon Foundation.

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Architecture studio Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL has created a house and studio with a curved facade for an up-and-coming manga artist in Tokyo, Japan.

Named A Japanese Manga Artist's House, the home is located on a narrow site with a rich artistic history and draws upon the storytelling aspect of manga – a type of Japanese comic book.

"The project deeply ties to the history and locality of the city of the building site," said Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL director Tan Yamanouchi.

"It is a place that has been loved by many manga artists in the long history of Tokyo," Yamanouchi told Dezeen.

Informed by the client's creativity, the home features a sweeping facade designed to give the impression of earth rising from the ground. An arched tunnel at its base leads to the entrance.

"The design tells a story of the earth, which has a deep connection with manga artists, welcoming an up-and-coming manga artist, and transforming into the architecture rising dynamically from the ground," said Yamanouchi.

A Japanese Manga Artist's House is designed to be as flexible as possible, acting as both a studio and home for the client.

To accommodate this, the studio designed a network of rooms ranging from public to private, with enclosed spaces for artistic work and more open areas for meetings.

Inside, the rooms are arranged to maximise the space available on the narrow plot, with a split-level plan comprising two floors at the front and three floors towards the back.

Passing through the entrance tunnel, guests enter a kitchen and dining area that features a bespoke curved table designed by Yamanouchi.

A light-filled void stretches above the kitchen and dining area, providing a contrast to the darkness of the rest of the house.

Towards the back of the ground floor is a semi-underground bathroom dramatically lit by a small circular window. Here, the walls are finished in a black waterproof plaster that the studio hopes will give the room a meditative atmosphere.

"I designed a round window with the ancient temples of Japan in mind," said Yamanouchi.

"The room is semi-underground, so the clients can enjoy the view of the moonlit night while maintaining their privacy."

A staircase that wraps around the void leads to the upper levels of the house, which feature hallways lined with large wooden shelving units for storage.

Towards the front of the home is a double-height space that acts as the artist's studio.

A separate study and closet take up the other end of the building, with a bed pod and guest room that doubles up as a library on the third level.

"The design of the rooms allows for subtle and flexible use of space in a very compact dwelling," said Yamanouchi.  "We strive to continue creating architecture that embraces open narratives while pursuing logical solutions."

Other homes in Tokyo recently featured on Dezeen include a wooden home with exposed concrete furniture and a concrete house designed to blur the boundary between indoor and outdoor spaces.

The photography is by Katsumasa Tanaka.

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Japanese studio Apollo Architects & Associates has completed Esprit House, a home in Tokyo with a blocky concrete form elevated on piloti above a garage space.

Designed for a client who works in landscaping, the three-storey dwelling was created by local practice Apollo Architects & Associates to explore the home as somewhere that is both private and "open to the public sphere".

"In the work-from-home era, comfortable living environments and intermediary areas linking interior and exterior [are] increasingly in demand," said the practice.

"Perhaps the most sought-after characteristics of future homes will be a joy-de-vivre spirit that allows residents to migrate freely between indoor and outdoor spaces," it continued.

Both inside and out, the project contrasts bright, open-air spaces with more enclosed ones, reflected by the exterior contrast of austere, exposed concrete and a large area of glazing that reveals the interior to the street.

Entering a narrow space alongside the ground-floor garage and gym, a staircase leads up to the first floor where three bedrooms sit in the most enclosed area of the home, wrapped by concrete walls with carefully-placed openings.

"Other than the open chef's kitchen, functional elements such as the storage areas, kitchen, elevator, bathroom and stairwell are concentrated along walls running lengthwise through the house, resulting in a minimalistic, tube-shaped space," said the practice.

A large living, dining and kitchen area opens onto a balcony sandwiched between full-height sliding glass doors and the glass facade, planted with trees that extend above the home's roofline.

On the roof, a large terrace with an additional table, seating area and outdoor kitchen is surrounded by trees and sheltered beneath a metal pergola.

"Linking indoor and outdoor living spaces and enclosing them with greenery results in a serene atmosphere that is private while still offering attractive views," added the practice.

The interior of the living space has been finished with a dark palette of tiled grey floors, and wood-lined ceilings and walls with large areas of built-in storage.

Areas of exposed concrete have been left visible in the lower spaces of the home, while simple wall finishes and wooden floors bring a warmer feel to the bedrooms.

Flooded with light from the full-height windows during the day, at night concealed strips of lighting bring an atmospheric feel to the interiors.

Apollo Architects & Associates is based in Tokyo and was founded in 2000 by Satoshi Kurosaki.

The studio's previous projects include a home in Tokyo arranged around a series of hidden courtyards, and a minimalist home squeezed onto a narrow site just 1.4 metres wide.

The photography is by Masao Nishikawa.

Project credits:

Architecture: Apollo Architects & Associates
Structural engineer: Motoi Nomura Structures
Facility engineer: Naoki Matsumoto
Lighting design: Ripple design
Construction: Kobo Co., Ltd.

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Japanese design studio Nendo has created a gold-coloured Christmas tree for the Tokyo Midtown shopping centre in Roppongi, Tokyo, with kinetic cutouts designed to resemble "sparkling lights".

The 7.5-metre-high tree, which sits in the middle of the shopping centre, has a polyhedral surface made from flat metal panels that have been bolted together to form a pyramid.

Behind the panels, which have fluttering star-shaped cutouts, sit 416 compact fans. These were programmed to move the panels in patterns up, down and across the tree.

"The pieces not only sway and move with the wind but can also stop swinging in the air catching the wind at the programmed timing," Nendo said. "By continuously receiving a certain amount of airflow, the pieces also float upward in a sustained manner."

The patterned cutouts, which Nendo said resemble "sparkling lights", appear to swirl around the tree or create a rhythmic pattern that moves up and down the conical installation.

Matching cutouts in the same colour, described by Nendo as a "matte champagne gold", were hung from the ceiling elsewhere in the shopping centre.

These pieces, which comprise both the cutout stars and the squares from which they were cut, can be seen on Tokyo Midtown's garden terrace as well as in its galleria and atrium terraces.

"The theme glitter in the air translates to creating the uplifting and shimmering atmosphere, the very essence of Christmas, by literally generating 'glitters' by 'air'," Nendo said of the decorative ornaments.

Nendo, which creates both architecture and products, recently unveiled an archive to house its products and furniture that was made from precast concrete box culverts.

The studio also designed the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cauldron, which opened up to reveal a hydrogen-powered Olympic flame and was among seventeen designers to reimagine fashion house Dior's Medallion chair for Milan design week 2021.

The photography is by Takumi Ota and the video is by Bird and insects.

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Hospitality brand Edition has teamed up with Japanese architect Kengo Kuma to create a luxury hotel filled with plants in the Toranomon district of Tokyo, Japan.

Occupying the upper floors of a high-rise building in the Tokyo business district of Toranomon, the 206-room hotel is the first outpost in Japan for the Edition brand, which partnered with architect Kuma on the interior design.

The heart of the hotel is a two-storey lobby space bursting with plants, which guests arrive at after taking the elevator up to the 31st floor.

"I wanted to prove that it was possible to create a real oasis at the heart of the big city," Kuma told Dezeen.

The large, open atrium, which draws from the layout of Buddhist temples, contains a bar, restaurant and numerous different seating areas – many of which provide impressive views out across Tokyo.

The double-height space is broken up by several large beams covered with wooden slats, which also adorn the ceiling of the space.

"The beams are primarily parts of the structure, but we didn’t treat them in a way that might disturb the interior," Kuma said.

"Rather, we took advantage of the beams, covered them with wooden louvres and elevated their existence to a symbol of the hotel."

The abundant use of wood continues throughout the hotel, including the bedrooms and 22 suites, where Kuma also introduced sliding screens.

"In traditional Japanese houses, movable partitions are often applied to enhance flexibility in the interior, and we extended the idea to the rooms at Edition," he said.

The hotel largely sticks to the neutral colour palette and natural materials such as marble and wood that are characteristic of the Edition brand.

Vibrant pops of colour have been introduced in the two restaurants, which are helmed by Michelin-starred chef Tom Aikens.

The aptly named Blue Room, which occupies one side of the lobby space, features upholstery in deep hues of sapphire.

The Jade Room, which adjoins the lobby, swaps the blue for vibrant shades of green and opens onto a verdant terrace overlooking the red-and-white Tokyo Tower landmark.

"It’s unusual to provide a green terrace on top of a high-rise building, but we dared to do so in order to connect the indoor and outdoor in a most natural way," Kuma said.

Other hotel amenities include a swimming pool, spa and conference spaces.

The less aptly named Gold Bar, which is situated on the ground floor of the building that houses the hotel, combines black walls, floors, curtains and furniture with a white vaulted ceiling. An artwork hung above a fireplace on one side of the room is the only significant golden addition to the space.

The hotel, which opened last year, is the first of two Edition hotels planned for Tokyo, with a second hotel in the Ginza district of the city set to open soon.

Previous Edition hotels include the West Hollywood Edition in Los Angeles designed in partnership with John Pawson and the Times Square Edition in New York City created with Yabu Pushelberg. Both hotels feature similarly plant-filled spaces.

The Edition brand is a partnership between Marriott International and renowned hotelier Ian Schrager, who is best known for co-founding the infamous nightclub Studio 54 in New York City in the late 1970s and 1980s.

"I became acquainted with Ian in the 80s when I was studying in New York, and have admired his philosophy and sensitivity ever since," Kuma said. "I believe our chemistry worked well and we could work together without much talking."

While the Tokyo Edition in Toranomon is the first Edition hotel in Japan, Japanese design has had a significant influence on Schrager's work, according to the hotelier.

"I have always had a spiritual connection with the approach and aesthetics of Japan," Schrager said. "Their rationality, their simplicity, and their restraint has been the foundation of everything I’ve done."

"They are truly original thinkers but execute their ideas in such a humble and modest fashion," he continued. "The end results are bold yet refined and shouts in a quiet way. It’s a sweet spot that is completely seductive for me."

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Studio Wasabi Architecture and Satoshi Kawakami Architects have created a home and artist residency in Tokyo for Mexican artist Bosco Sodi, founder of the arts foundation Casa Wabi in Mexico.

Occupying a corner plot in the Sendagi district of Tokyo, Casa Nano is a renovation of a postwar house constructed in the late 1950s.

"The house has a very simple facade system to protect the windows, a system called amado, where you can slide some metal windows and close them when there is a typhoon," said Studio Wasabi co-founder Rafael Balboa.

The 68-square-metre home has a simple facade with a gabled roof and ridges that jut out to create small awnings.

"For the exterior, we only applied one material – which is called Excell Joint – so it looks similar to the original house in order to make it more natural and coherent with the neighbourhood," said Balboa.

Studio Wasabi worked with Satoshi Kawakami Architects to completely revamp the interiors for use as an extension of the Casa Wabi artist residency in Puerto Escondido, Mexico or as a home for founder Bosco Sodi and his wife interior designer Lucia Corredor.

After sponsoring 13 Mexican artists in the original Casa Nano at another location, Sodi needed more space and decided to move the residency into a larger building.

The architecture studios worked with Sodi and Corredor to open up the space, creating an open-concept kitchen, adding furniture and moving the original staircase.

The first floor of the two-storey, cedar-framed structure is concrete, and the second storey's floor is made of cedar.

The designers and construction company Washin Architects kept all of the old cedar beams and columns, as well as the windows from the original house to preserve the essence of the original building.

"For us, it was also very important to be able to have blackout windows so we kept the original pocket metal windows of the facade of the old house to be able to close the windows completely," explained Corredor.

The team had to move the original staircase to open up the ground floor, so a floating steel staircase was placed against the wall at the middle of the structure, suspended from the existing beams.

"This house, besides being part of the art residence of Casa Wabi, was designed to fit our family needs," said Corredor.

Storage space was another important factor in the design process, so the architecture studios created a shelf unit that hangs from the existing beams that stretch around the entire house.

On the second floor, three separate spaces were included to accommodate a family of five. The primary bedroom has a simple layout and connects to a small terrace.

A central living area has a bench with a small reading nook and the seating area was furnished with a vintage French sofa from the 1950s and an old wood table from a local flea market.

The bunk bedroom at the end of the second floor was built for the kids or as another area spot an artist in residence and has access via a ladder to a small outdoor terrace.

The three spaces are divided by Japanese paper sliding doors with overlaying glass thick enough to maintain privacy and let the light flow into the space.

The doors and built-in furniture as well as the ceiling of the second floor were made using Lauan wood.

Corredor used furniture from the previous residence and items that were locally sourced to furnish the home.

"We brought all the furniture we already had in the former Casa Nano," she said.

"Like our old wood table that we found in the flea market in UENO and our beloved Noguchi lamp to give warmth and light to the space."

Casa Nano will continue with its residency program, inviting four Mexican artists every year, each for a period of one month.

"Japan has been life-changing for the artists that have been already," Sodi said.

"As it was for me when I was invited to an art residence in Tokyo almost 20 years ago."

Casa Wabi's headquarters in Puerto Escondido was designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando and features yearly pavilions by international architects including a red brick chimney by Mexico City-based architect Alberto Kalach and a ceramics workshop by Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza.

The photography is by Nao Takahashi. 

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Design studio Hakuten has created a three-dimensional map of Ginza, Tokyo, that presents the ecology that exists in the district.

The Ginza Ecological Map, which was featured in the Japanese makeup brand Shiseido's Hakuten's window, was designed to "carefully express the impression of the location and the history of the city, with a hidden story of Ginza".

It spotlighted the natural elements found throughout the district, including samples of trees, plants, insects and earth, with the intention of enhancing the local community's knowledge of its district's ecology. Each item was presented in one of 72 windows – similarly to how scientific specimens are exhibited in museums.

The exhibition ran throughout 2021 and across two themes: Organisms, which presented insects and cuttings from plants, and Earth – showcasing the diversity of soils found throughout the district.

"We care­fully displayed this ecology in the window as if they were scientific specimens," said Hakuten.

"The exhibition ran throughout the year across two different ecological themes – Organisms and Earth – and brought to light a new and beautiful Ginza that had not been seen before in the form of the Ginza Ecology Map."

The materials were collected during a number of fieldwork studies in addition to the knowledge gained from speaking to people local to Ginza. Once collected, the items were exhibited in creative ways with the aim of becoming a tool to communicate the connection between Ginza's natural world and society.

For example, the plant named glothistle was collected from under the city's Wako clock tower, and as part of the exhibition was displayed in a clock-like motif to represent it.

In addition, the district's ginkgo biloba trees were planted in 1906, and according to the designers, they represent a "turning point for modernisation in the city".

As a nod to the tree's heritage in the district, images of Ginza's buildings were printed onto the collected ginkgo tree leaves as part of the exhibition.

"Unlike most window displays that show objects and installations that only suit its occasion, not only did Ginza Ecological Map provide a new perspective of Ginza city, but through research from local residents it also expanded into a communication tool between the city and the people," said Hakuten.

"By looking at the usually unseen ecology that exists in a metropolis, we were able to rethink the relationship between the city, people, and nature in an attempt to approach a more sustainable society."

As part of the Earth theme, the colour of the soil across the district was documented, including samples collected from sidewalk ditches and from around various plants such as dogwood and camellia.

The exhibition also shed light on creating a number of creative resources from the city's soil – including pottery and crayons – and clothing dyed using local plant's pigments.

According to the studio, the pandemic provided the opportunity to reflect on the human-nature relationship as Ginza was "emptied" because of the pandemic.

The project was conceived of this change, and aimed to rethink the district's approach towards creating a society more mindful of enhancing and protecting its nature.

"In Covid-19 where we were provided with more opportunities to deeply reflect upon the global environment, this project allowed us to rethink the relationship between the city, people, and nature in an attempt to approach a more sustainable society," said Hakuten.

Ginza Ecological Map has been shortlisted in the exhibition design category at this year's Dezeen Awards alongside, Weird Sensation Feels Good – The World of ASMR, Greenwood Rising: Black Wall Street History Center exhibition and Journey of the Pioneers.

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International practice OMA has released images of Harajuku Quest, a shopping centre with stepped terraces and a green rooftop that has begun construction in Tokyo.

Designed by OMA's New York studio and partner Shohei Shigematsu for real estate company NTT Urban Development, the building will house retail and dining spaces as well as a rooftop with living walls.

The 8,082-square-metre Harajuku Quest will be located on a site between Omotesando and Oku-Harajuku in Japan's capital and is designed to bridge the two areas.

Its facade will have a different design depending on which neighbourhood it is facing. The side facing Omotesando has a "monolithic, transparent face" clad in glass, which is set back at the top and the ground to create a convex shape, while the Harajuku side of the building has stepped terraces.

This layout was designed so that the facade towards Harajuku would open the building up towards the neighbourhood, which is known for its creativity and distinctive youth culture.

The second of the stepped terraces on this side will have a public datum that the studio designed to be used as a plaza that could hold cultural events.

"The conjunction of Omotesando and Oku-Harajuku embodies a duality of urban context as well as Tokyo's fashion and retail culture," said OMA partner Shigematsu.

"It was essential for the new building to bridge the two areas and express two stories," he added.

"Like two sides of the same coin, a single building conveys alternate personalities, connected by a new public corridor. Harajuku Quest acts as both a visual and programmatic convergence point of Omotesando and Oku-Harajuku – a gathering place where visitors can experience the activities and aura of global fashion and local cultural scene simultaneously."

Construction has begun on Harajuku Quest and the centre is expected to complete in February 2025.

OMA also recently revealed its design for a domed innovation centre in South Chicago, while its long-awaited Taipei Performing Arts Center has opened in Taiwan.

The images are courtesy of OMA and Inplace.

Project credits:

Architect: OMA
Partner-in-charge: Shohei Shigematsu
Associate: Takeshi Mitsuda
Team: Timothy Tse, Yuzaburo Tanaka, Kohei Sugishita, Chiao Yang, Fernan Bilik, Tetsuo Kobayashi
Executive architect: NTT Facilities
Structure: NTT Facilities
MEP: NTT Facilities
Landscape architect: Landscape Plus
Lighting: Lighting Planners Associates
Graphics, signage, wayfinding: Daikoku Design Institute, Bikohsha
General contractor: Kumagai Gumi

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Interior construction firm Semba Corporation has renovated the interior of its headquarters in Tokyo to include reclaimed materials discarded during the demolition of other offices.

The company's redesign of its own office interior is shortlisted in the sustainable interior category for the upcoming Dezeen Awards, which will announce its winners next month.

Called Semba Good Ethical Office, the project features various pared-back tables, seating and shelving created from materials salvaged from previous office demolitions.

This furniture is positioned across a single open-plan space in Japan's capital, which is brightly illuminated by overhead lighting and rectilinear windows.

A plinth-like centrepiece takes the form of both a staircase and a designated desk area, which was formed from boxy arrangements of surplus wood and old filing cabinets.

Semba Corporation centred the interiors around two principles – "ethical" and "hackable" design – in order to complete the project, the company said.

"To incorporate 'ethical design', a circular interior design [theory], into the office renovation, we mined materials from unnecessary stuff generated by office demolitions," Semba Corporation told Dezeen.

"Under the theme of 'hackable design', we can redefine our working style and attitudes. We completely renovated our office to be friendly to the Earth, people and society," explained the firm.

According to the company, 80 per cent of the furniture in the Semba Good Ethical Office is reused, while the office achieved a waste-recycling rate of 99 per cent.

Reconstituted foam was used to create the padding on benches that make up informal meeting booths, while various offcuts of wood were used to construct geometric shelves throughout the interior.

Semba Corporation explained that it hopes that other firms will begin to adopt similar design principles when creating their office interiors.

"Especially in Japan, the lifespan from construction to demolition and disposal has become very short since [increasing] economic growth, and waste has been dumped in landfill," the firm said.

"However, Japanese culture has originally valued attachment to things and has an aesthetic sense to continue to use them with creative ideas. So I think our principles have an affinity to that culture."

"We hope that 'ethical design,' a future-friendly interior design, will be a basic principle in interior design for the future."

Semba Good Ethical Office joins a group of existing self-designed studios that other firms have created to be more sustainable than the average office, according to the companies.

These include German studio Urselmann Interior's renovation of its studio to include biodegradable, recycled or upcycled materials.

The images are courtesy of Semba Corporation.

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Japanese architecture studio Office M-SA has arranged a house in Akishima, Tokyo, around a series of exposed concrete elements designed as extensions of its foundations.

The permanent concrete forms act as anchor points for the home's timber-framed walls, which are designed to be easily extended or altered in the future, allowing the client to adapt the interior to their needs.

"We designed a house where the concrete foundation can divide the space by standing up on the site as furniture to trigger a place to stay," explained Office M-SA co-founder Meiri Shinohara.

"[The] concrete structure might keep standing there for a hundred years, [and] the timber structure could be extended or demolished in a couple of years," he continued.

Appearing throughout the interior and exterior of the home, the concrete elements form everything from a covered bike shelter and staircases to a fireplace, tables, bookshelves and planters.

They were placed by Office M-SA to give each compact room a sense of function or purpose, which could then be reinterpreted by the residents.

The house comprises two rendered, mono-pitch forms, loosely divided by two concrete stair forms. One stair runs over an arched opening to connect the home's two floors, while the other leads from the surrounding patio up to a rooftop terrace.

A double-height living and dining area occupies the north side of the home, with large windows overlooking the patio and the concrete stair leading to a balcony and a bedroom above.

To the south, a study and bathroom are organised alongside four more bedrooms that open onto the wood-decked roof terrace.

"The layout of the concrete objects was decided depending on use, such as cooking, reading, passing through or switching the scene," explained Shinohara.

"It is assumed that the rooms that are vaguely connected will change their function due to daily changes and changes over the years," Shinohara added.

"I hope someone would use the space in an unexpected way which is against what we originally planned."

Inside, the home is lined with wooden panels that contrast the exposed concrete. The same wood is used to create shelving and cabinets, with other areas of storage concealed in portions of the concrete structures.

Other residential projects recently completed in Tokyo include a home by Kiri Architects with a large staircase at its centre designed as a social space and a dwelling by Apollo Architects & Associates organised around hidden courtyards.

The photography is by Kazuhisa Kota.

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Sheer curtains that look like translucent walls were used to divide up the structure of this temporary showroom space in Japan created by Domino Architects.

Shortlisted in the large retail interiors category of Dezeen Awards 2022, PROUD Gallery Gotanda aims to offer a solution to the wasteful practice of producing condominium showrooms – temporary structures near new developments that are used as a base for sales teams.

The showrooms, which are usually built and then demolished within a matter of years once the units are all sold, typically contain a customer reception and seating area, as well as rooms for meetings and presentations. These are all styled with the target customer in mind.

"It's like a theme park with effects to motivate people to buy," said the architecture studio.

"As entertainment, it is very interesting, but we wonder if this method of spending a large amount of energy each time is really appropriate for this age."

Domino Architects worked with HAKUTEN and Nozomi Kume from Studio Onder de Linde to create a more sustainable alternative for Nomura Real Estate Development and its PROUD condominium brand in Tokyo.

Built using the prefabricated skeleton structure of an existing Nomura showroom, the layout of PROUD Gallery Gotanda is easy to change, expand and reconstruct.

The steel structure is wrapped with light curtains while the partitions inside the business meeting space are made from "foldable walls", which are curtains with a wall-like thickness.

These foldable walls have arched openings and can be repositioned so that the layout can be easily changed according to purpose.

"By carefully examining the sheen, curves, and colour overlap of the curtains, we were able to create an elegant and light space that does not feel like a rugged prefabricated structure," the studio said.

The materials and samples used in the planned condominiums are subtly incorporated into the interior as part of the showroom's furniture and fixtures.

The idea is to allow the buyer to imagine a space rather than be entirely dictated to.

In Amsterdam, design studio Beyond Space has created an office interior in Amsterdam that uses rippling laser-cut fabric to form cave-like spaces for working.

The photography is by Gottingham.

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Japanese studio Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture has completed a mixed-use development in Tokyo comprising a community performance space and apartments housed in angular concrete volumes.

The Ideareve-Ikegami building was designed by Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture, in collaboration with Takayuki Yagi and Yagi Komuten, for the client Yasunori Kamata / K-M-T, to provide a cultural hub and accommodation in a predominantly residential neighbourhood in the city's southern Ota Ward.

The area is named for the Ikegami Honmonji Buddhist temple, which is situated close to the new development and includes a famous 17th-century five-storey pagoda.

The geometric, reinforced-concrete building aims to blend in with the neighbourhood's cafes, shops, houses and smaller temples, as well as the historically important site of the Ikegami Honmonji temple.

"The challenge for us was to design an experiential complex in [the temple's] shadow that would embrace the spiritual and cultural essence of the community, while also respecting the types of strictly-enforced building codes that typically protect such heritage areas," explained architect Ryuichi Sasaki.

Along with 13 one-bedroom residential units and a penthouse, the building functions as a creative facility for local residents to study music in its various multipurpose spaces.

A two-storey music hall and an 80-seat auditorium occupy the prominent southwest corner of the building, which juts out towards the adjacent streets.

A void at the centre of the building leads into a foyer that is shared by the music hall on one side and the apartments on the other. An adjacent external stair provides access to the rental housing on the upper two floors.

Landscaping, including stone-filled gabion walls, demarcates the complex's boundaries and separates garden spaces planted with various species.

Connections across the site and out towards the surrounding area are maintained by large windows and multiple entrances. The planting contributes to the scheme's overall sense of simplicity and serenity.

"Views from the residential area, as well as the music hall circulation areas, were designed to inspire emotions conducive to musical creativity and melodic rhythms," Sasaki added.

"The project contributes to the blending of culture and hospitality that characterises the town, and we are proud to provide this complex for the joyful use of residents of Ikegami."

The building's cast-concrete facades feature sections that fold outwards at a slight angle, creating shadows that animate the otherwise homogenous surfaces.

Inside the foyer, brass-coloured stainless-steel panels mirror the external protrusions, angling inwards and incorporating illumination along their vertical edges.

The angular music hall features protruding acoustic reflectors with integrated lighting. One corner of the space contains a storage cupboard with a mezzanine viewing area above.

The staircase leading up to the apartments is designed to evoke the stepped climb to the Ikegami Honmonji temple. It connects with a corridor at the rear of the building that provides access to the sound-proofed homes.

Each apartment has a small kitchen, a bathroom and a studio-style bedroom and living space, with most opening onto a private balcony.

A penthouse unit occupying part of the upper two floors on the western side of the building comprises three distinct volumes that can be reconfigured using sliding walls.

The penthouse's living room and dining area can be enlarged, while the main bedroom on the top floor can also be divided to create several smaller rooms.

Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture seeks to reinterpret architecture's position within contemporary society and works across various typologies including residential and cultural buildings.

The practice, which is longlisted for Dezeen Awards 2022 architecture studio of the year, has previously completed a minimal gallery space for traditional porcelain dolls and the conversion of a warehouse club into offices with walls that appear to float.

The photography is by Takumi Ota Photography.

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A large stairwell takes up a third of the living space in Light-Filled Stair Hall, a compact family home designed by Tokyo-based Kiri Architects.

The 79-square-metre house, which is shortlisted in the Urban House category of Dezeen Awards 2022, provides a home for a family of four in Nishitōkyō – an area to the west of Tokyo's city centre.

Kiri Architects principal Keisuke Kiri decided to expand the staircase so that it could become a social space for occupants, rather than just a route between the home's two storeys.

Taking cues from the engawa, a type of veranda that is typical in traditional Japanese homes, he reimagined the staircase as a space that can be used in different ways.

"This glazed and elongated staircase offers up various views and scenery to its inhabitants," said Kiri. "It is a sublime space filled with light and breeze."

"On a sunny day, the handrail becomes an extended washing line. And the stair tread is wide enough to sit on and relax while listening to the piano from the lower level."

The stairwell extends across the full width of the house, positioned directly behind a glazed wall that serves as the building's facade.

The staircase itself is formed of as few elements as possible. Treads and risers are made from 50-millimetre-thick planes of wood, supported by a system of structural columns and suspended steel rods.

This arrangement allows plenty of daylight to penetrate the other rooms of the house but also affords them some privacy, with the staircase acting as a visual buffer.

"This large staircase plays an important role in relation to the surrounding environment," Kiri told Dezeen.

"In Japan, especially Tokyo, land tends to be subdivided even smaller," he added. "The large stairs are an important buffer in relation to neighbours with a sense of closeness."

The layout of the rest of the house is kept simple and flexible.

The ground floor is open plan, but a stepped floor level divides the space into two areas. One is a kitchen and dining space containing a large island counter, while the other is a lounge containing the family piano.

The room is flanked by a wall of storage including a pantry.

Upstairs, the family bathroom sits alongside a large bedroom fronted by a series of six glazed doors. These doors mean the split-level space could be easily subdivided in the future.

"Few rooms were actually designed, providing a rich margin for the children's growth and multiple nuances of possible changes," said Kiri.

The house also includes a small work-from-home space, with shelving and a desk built into the end wall of the stairwell's first-floor landing.

Light-Filled Stair Hall is one of five projects vying to be named Urban House of the Year at this year's Dezeen Awards. Also in the running are a concrete house in India and a courtyard home in Australia.

The photography is by Anna Nagai and Shinkenchiku-sha.

Project credits

Architect: Kiri Architects (Keisuke Kiri)
Structural engineer: DN-Archi
Contractor: SIGUMA

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Copenhagen-based OEO Studio combined muted colours and textured materials to create the interiors for this renovated Tokyo apartment that is characterised by its Japandi design.

Located within the Opus Arisugawa housing complex in central Tokyo, the apartment's interior was renovated to combine design influences from Japan and Scandinavia – a trend known as Japandi.

OEO Studio intended to create a serene atmosphere by adopting minimalist interior design and mainly natural materials throughout, both of which are hallmarks of the Japandi style.

The apartment's entryway includes a rammed-earth wall surrounded by a slatted rectilinear wardrobe that was custom-made in calming honey-hued wood.

Low-slung concrete seating is also built into the hallway, which doubles as a sculptural plinth for a ceramic vase by Christian Bruun.

A mixture of deep indigo tiles and paper yarn rugs made from Finnish birch but embroidered with Japanese textile-style patterns cover the floors.

"The interiors reflect the studio's cross-pollination of Japanese and Scandinavian design ideas, drawing inspiration from both cultures and reinterpreting them in new ways," said the firm.

The hallway leads to an open-plan living room filled with interiors in neutral tones, including cool stone floors and sleek furniture finished in smoked oak, oiled pinewood and soft wool.

Curvy Taylor sofas by Shanghai brand Stella Works are arranged around an organically shaped timber coffee table, while artworks by Jaakko Mattila line the walls.

Japanese Ōya stone was used for the columns that divide the living area and brightly lit kitchen, which includes tactile wooden cabinetry.

A minimal dining space with black-stained ash chairs also features alongside the kitchen.

The apartment's three bedrooms also have a mixture of refined textures and shapes, while the singular pared-back bathroom displays a statement wooden bathtub at its centre.

"We worked carefully with the zoning and the transitions between the rooms in the apartment to create an evocative yet calm, welcoming and comfortable atmosphere," said OEO Studio.

Founded in 2003, OEO Studio has created a number of similar projects including a Tokyo restaurant that references both Danish carpentry and Japanese gardens in its interiors.

The firm recently created a cafe and shop at Designmuseum Denmark that pays homage to architect Kaare Klint's original design.

The photography is by Michinori Aoki.

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German studio Ingenhoven Architects has completed a pair of skyscrapers, including Japan's tallest residential building, which are covered in planting on the lower levels.

Set on either side of Tokyo's tallest building – Toranomon Hills Tower designed by Japanese studio Nihon Sekkei – the pair of skyscrapers have a similar aesthetic, with one containing apartments and one office space.

The taller 220-metre-high skyscraper contains 54 storeys of apartments, making it Japan's tallest residential tower, while a 185-metre-high tower contains 36 storeys of office space.

Designed by Ingenhoven Architects, the skyscrapers are connected by bridges to create a greenery-covered first-floor podium.

"The core aim was to design two new towers, which integrate well with the surrounding neighbourhood, respecting the taller central tower while presenting their own contemporary urban response," said Ingenhoven Architects founder Christoph Ingenhoven.

"And to give something back to the city by offering a green, publicly accessible plateau at the first above-ground level – a place of balance with zones of calm amid the rush of this large city," Ingenhoven told Dezeen.

Informed by the green space surrounding the nearby Atago Shrine, Ingenhoven Architects created a series of terraces on the lower floors at the base of each tower, which contain 154 full-sized trees.

Alongside the trees, the studio wrapped the lowest seven floors of the office building and the eleventh floor of the residential building in hedgerows, in a similar move to an office it designed in Düsseldorf that contains five miles of hedges on its facade.

"We integrated urban green into the project, which is not very common in Tokyo, to create a green, lively, publicly accessible plateau at the first above-ground level," explained Ingenhoven.

"The plateau is reserved for pedestrians and links all three towers together, providing access to the cafes and restaurants in both new high-rises, along with shops, a large lobby, and coworking space in the office tower. A place of balance with zones of calm amid the rush of the world's largest city."

The upper floors of both skyscrapers are defined by powder-coated aluminium decks. These serve as both sunshades and balconies in the residential tower.

In total, the residential tower contains 550 apartments that each have a balcony. A spa, pool, fitness centre and childcare facility are also contained within the building.

Echoing a recent interview with British desiger Thomas Heatherwick, Ingenhoven believes that trees and greenery should be integrated into buildings to help combat climate change.

"With every surface we use for construction we remove some of the earth's biocapacity – no matter how sophisticated our buildings are," he said. "More green in the city is a crucial part of the urban response to the increasing impacts of climate change.

"Green roofs and facades improve the microclimate of our cities – primarily by reducing the urban heat island effect and storing rainwater, but also absorbing carbon dioxide and dust, dampening noise, supporting biodiversity, and enhancing our overall well-being," he continued.

Founded by Ingenhoven in 1985, Düsseldorf-based Ingenhoven Architects recently completed a plant-covered office in its home city and is designing Sydney's tallest tower with Australian practice Architectus.

The photography is by Ingenhoven Associates / HGEsch.

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The Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo could soon be replicated in both real space and the metaverse, as its original architect Kisho Kurokawa's studio is auctioning the rights to rebuild it.

Tokyo-based Kisho Kurokawa Architect and Associates (KKAA) and Japanese investment company Laetoli are currently selling the rights to reconstruct the tower on OpenSea – a marketplace based on non-fungible token (NFT) technology.

There are two ongoing NFT sales, one which will allow a winning bidder to rebuild Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower anywhere in the world, and another to construct a version of it in the metaverse.

Launched on 22 July, the auction responds to the demolition of the iconic Japanese housing block, which is underway in Tokyo's Ginza neighbourhood.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower was built in 1972 as part of Japan's metabolist movement and featured 140 prefabricated tiny capsule homes that were bolted onto two concrete towers.

Video footage shot by Dezeen in April shows construction workers starting to dismantle these modular capsules, due to the building's ageing structure.

According to KKAA, the sale of its reconstruction rights aligns with the theories of metabolism, which were pioneered by Kurokawa and championed adaptability.

"The main idea of metabolist architecture was to rethink society using architecture as a tool for potential change, speculating how buildings can change, grow, and evolve," KKAA told Dezeen.

"By entering the digital space, the metabolism theory can continue to evolve and reflect society today and in the future."

Laetoli, KKAA's collaborator on the project, operates a company called Kabuki X that exists to preserve Japanese culture and architecture for future generations in real and virtual spaces.

"We hope that this auction will ensure that this historical masterpiece will be rebuilt somewhere in the world by those who value the idea of metabolism and are able to optimise his design to enhance society," reflected its director Yoshitaka Kataoka.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digital certificates of authenticity and ownership that can be assigned to physical and digital assets.

Similarly to a cryptocurrency transaction, each token is individually minted on a blockchain and allows the associated asset to be bought, sold and collected.

To host the auction, an accurate digital model of the tower has been created by international architecture studio BDP, which was approached for the project by KKAA and Laetoli.

Using archival content and drawings supplied by KKAA, BDP created the model of the tower's architecture, structure and services on Autodesk's Revit software.

The studios also utilised Autodesk's BIM360 collaboration software, enabling them to view the model and comment on it across their studios in Tokyo and the UK.

After the sale, BDP's CAD data and model will be supplied to the winning bidders to allow them to construct the Nakagin Capsule Tower in real space and the metaverse.

For buyers of rights for metaverse construction, there will be no restrictions on design rights.

This means buyers will be able to alter the tower's design in virtual space and have complete creative freedom over its colour, size and function.

In real space, KKAA believes the tower's blueprint could be used for everything from housing in overcrowded cities to providing temporary shelters in places hit by natural disasters.

However, KKAA will require purchasers to "show [it] their schemes and get [its] approval in advance" when rebuilding in real space.

"Initially, we are in the position that we don't restrict the purchaser on the recreations of the building unless the recreations will be detrimental to the reputation of KKAA and Nakagin Tower," the team explained.

"The purchaser can change the numbers of the capsules or towers, whatever," KKAA continued. "But physically the recreations must be built under the building regulations in each country."

KKAA added that while there is only one auction for both the real space and metaverse rights, purchasers can lease or sell them to others. This means a number of iterations of the tower could be built.

The starting price for the auction has not been disclosed.

Another attempt to preserve the Nakagin Capsule Tower in digital space is being made by Japanese digital consultancy Gluon, which is creating an augmented reality model of the building by combining data from laser scanning with 20,000 photographs.

As part of the project, Gluon has laser-scanned the entire building.

Some of the original tower's capsules are also being protected by residents and conservation groups. This includes the Nakagin Capsule Tower A606 Project, which is restoring and modifying the capsule numbered A606.

The group plans to transform one of the pods into a "mobile capsule", which it said will honour "Kurokawa's concept of 'architecture in motion'" and adaptability.

The visuals are courtesy of BDP unless stated.

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Architecture studio Snøhetta has revealed the design for a skyscraper in Tokyo, named Shibuya Upper West Project, which is intended to be "a sanctuary of peace and relaxation in the bustle of the city".

The 164.8-metre-tall development, which will be the studio's largest in Japan, will include shops, apartments, a luxury hotel, and facilities for art and cultural events.

Snøhetta's design aims to bridge the lively Shibuya retail area with the quieter Shoto residential neighbourhood, occupying the site of the former Tokyu department store between the two areas.

"Nestled at the edge of Shibuya where energy meets calm, the project aspires to become Tokyo's newest 'urban retreat,'" said the studio.

According to the studio, the 117,000-square-metre mixed-use development was inspired by the past and present of Tokyo. The terraced steps rising from the ground were designed to pay tribute to the distant foothills of Mount Fuji, while the building's ceramic facade aims to honour an ancient Japanese building practice.

"The city of Tokyo lies in a duality of nowness and time-honoured tradition," said the studio. "A city of turns and juxtapositions, contrasting qualities that harmonise with one another."

"The Shibuya Upper West Project intends to represent all this while imagining a new vision for the famous and lively area of Shibuya in Tokyo, known for its bustling crowds, big screens, and the Shibuya Crossing in front of the Shibuya Station Hachikō."

Set to be completed in 2027, the centre will be built around a central 164.8-metre-tall high rise with planted recesses and angled geometric forms.

A horizontal volume will extend to the side of the tower, with floor-to-ceiling windows surrounding the first two storeys and a large exterior screen placed on the upper levels. It will be topped with a multi-level landscaped roof garden.

Alternating layers of blue-tinted cladding and glass will span the rest of the tower, which will come to an angled peak.

An atrium named The Hive will sit at the centre of the development, while a more relaxing space, The Sanctuary, will offer lush roof terraces where visitors can relax and unwind.

"The design is formed as a single gesture, moving from the horizontal ground plane to the vertical skyline, symbolising the energy of the area in a single stroke. It is an homage to the duality of Tokyo – a modern city steeped in tradition," Snøhetta Hong Kong managing director Robert Greenwood explained. ​

The project will be developed in collaboration with the neighbouring Bunkamara cultural complex, an artistic and cultural hub in Tokyo, with Snøhetta acting as design architect and Nikken Sekkei Ltd and Tokyu Architects & Engineers INC acting together as executive architect.

"In such a well-known and historically significant area in one of the world's most exciting cities, the project is paying homage to and respecting traditions as well as looking ahead," said Greenwood.

"We aim to design for the future and aspire to find the most sustainable solutions, contributing to Japan's goal of being carbon-neutral by 2050."

Founded in Oslo in 1989, Architecture studio Snøhetta has recently completed an underwater restaurant in Norway and a walkway in that disappears with the tide.

The visuals are courtesy of Tokyu Corporation and Snøhetta.

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Japanese digital consultancy Gluon is combining data from laser scanning with 20,000 photographs to create an augmented reality model of the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo, which is currently being demolished.

Named the 3D Digital Archive Project, the team aims to use digital technology to create an extremely accurate virtual model of the metabolist residential block designed by Kisho Kurokawa.

"We are using 3D data to save the famous Nakagin Capsule Tower, which is being demolished in 2022, as a culturally-valuable memory," said Gluon.

"We aim to accurately record its complex shapes with 3D measurement technology and pass on the value of the architecture designed by Kisho Kurokawa to future generations."

The iconic 1970s housing block in the Ginza neighbourhood of Tokyo is one of the most significant works of metabolist architecture – a post-war architectural movement that began in the 1960s.

It is currently being demolished after falling into disrepair.

As part of the project, Gluon has laser-scanned the entire building and is combining this data with more than 20,000 photographs taken at the site and by drones to create the model.

The group hopes to preserve an accurate digital version of the building's exterior and interior as well as the numerous modifications that were made by its residents.

"In this project, we aim to utilize the 3D measurement technology that we have cultivated in the digital description of space so far, and to construct a new preservation method as a digital archive and to inherit the value of famous architecture," said Gluon.

"In addition to three-dimensional records of complex shapes and structures that cannot be recorded by flat photographs and drawings alone, the trajectory of modifications made by residents as they live with their ingenuity and the appearance of the building as it has changed over time are recorded as they are, thereby accurately grasping the architectural shape and leaving it as a digital archive for posterity."

After the project is complete, Gluon will upload the 3D point cloud data to a website as an open-source resource that will be available for free. An augmented reality (AR) model will also be made available for smartphones.

The team is collaborating with the Nakagin Capsule Tower Building A606 Project and other groups as part of the wider efforts to preserve elements of the building.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower A606 Project is restoring the capsule numbered A606. It aims to turn the capsule into a "mobile capsule".

The Nakagin Capsule Tower housing was designed by Kurokawa, who pioneered Japan's metabolist movement along with Kiyonori Kikutake and Fumihiko Maki.

The movement championed buildings that were adaptable and replaceable and each of the building's living pods, which measure 2.5 metres by four metres, were designed to be replaced every 25 years.

However, this never happened and the building became dilapidated, with demolition announced in 2021 and starting in 2022.

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Japanese architecture studio Abanba has completed a temple in Shinagawa, Tokyo, featuring a gently curving roof that shelters a glazed entrance and reflects daylight into a triple-height atrium.

Architect Toshihiro Bamba's studio Abanba was tasked with designing a replacement for an existing temple that had fallen into disrepair and needed to be relocated due to the expansion of an adjacent road.

The building, named Shinagawa Branch Temple, has a swooping, metal-clad roof that marks the position of its entrance on a small communal plaza.

Its curved profile contrasts with the orthogonal volumes that make up the rest of the temple.

The Japanese temple is located in a dense residential neighbourhood in Shinagawa City, where it provides a site for prayer and community activities in line with the teachings of the Tenriko religion.

The original building was a popular and cherished landmark, so the possibility of preserving and relocating it was examined early in the project.

Due to the building's condition and the cost of dismantling and re-erecting it, a decision was made to build a replacement with some of its original features and character.

"The original temple was used as a place for prayer in the city, for adults to visit before work or during lunch break to pray, and for children to play," Bamba explained.

"In order to inherit such an atmosphere in the new temple, we aimed to create an architecture that is open to the city but has an atmosphere as a place for prayer."

The three-storey Shinagawa Branch Temple adjoins an existing house owned by the temple's priest and is linked to the rest of the neighbourhood by a paved courtyard.

Its large curved roof recalls the hip-and-gable roof of the original temple, which is a common feature of palaces, shrines, pavilions and other buildings with official functions throughout East Asia.

Beneath the roof, a glazed wall incorporating a pair of central sliding doors provides a transparent and welcoming entrance to a triple-height atrium.

Daylight entering through a narrow roof light illuminates the surface of the curved ceiling and is reflected into adjacent circulation spaces on each level.

In the summer months, windows facing onto the atrium can be opened to allow cool air entering from the ground floor to circulate throughout the building.

Behind the entrance lobby on the ground floor is a small meeting hall containing a booth used to record and broadcast ceremonies and events taking place in the shrine.

The shrine itself is located on the first floor and features a traditional design that replicates the columns and translucent shoji screens from the existing temple.

On the Shinagawa Branch Temple's upper floor are a laundry room and adjoining roof terrace. The intention is that the interior programme on this level could be expanded if needed in the future.

Other Japanese temples featured on Dezeen include the stepped Shoraku-Ji building that Toru Kashihara Architects created in a cemetery in Tokyo and Satoru Hirota Architects' revamp of a Buddhist shrine from Japan's Edo period.

The photography is by Gen Inoue.

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A skylit and silver-painted void runs through the centre of the Scenery Scooping House, which Japanese practice Not Architects Studio has created in a dense residential area in Tokyo, Japan.

Hemmed in by three houses on a small plot in Ōta, the dwelling is planned around a triple-height void to maximise views and light while minimising overlooking.

According to Not Architects Studio's co-founder Lisa Ono, this is to help Scenery Scooping House connect with nature in the city, or what she describes as "small scenery".

"This is a proposal for a house that can scoop up the small scenery scattered in such a city and spend time with [it]," she explained.

"When I usually walk around my neighborhood, I see a similar cityscape," Ono added.

"However, when I squint, there are moments that touch my heart, such as the trees planted in the garden, the weeds growing on the roadside, sunlight filtering through trees along a street, and the sky seen from between the buildings."

Across three floors, Scenery Scooping House contains a large kitchen, living and dining space with storage and parking below and a bedroom and study above.

The skylit void cuts through the northwestern corner of the home and runs above an internal path that curves to connect the road with an adjacent alleyway.

At the end of the path, a small mesh-wrapped patio and balcony have been placed to overlook the alley.

While pulling light deep into the home via glazed openings at either end, the void also acts as the primary circulation area.

Sculptural steel staircases are overlooked by the openings to the surrounding rooms, which are positioned to ensure views outside.

"The small and large volumes of the rooms on both sides of the valley have openings of various shapes and heights, which can see the scenery directly outside or the surface of the valley that scoops up the scenery," Ono said.

Silver paint covers the entire interior of the void to reflect light deeper into Scenery Scooping House, while the living spaces feature plain white walls and wooden floors.

"We wanted to incorporate elements of the external environment into the house so chose a mirror-like silver colour to reflect them," said Ono. "It creates a new landscape that can only be seen in this house."

Externally, Scenery Scooping House has been clad in galvalume sheets with silver window and door frames, chosen to blend in with the "miscellany" of the surrounding streets and buildings.

Other Japanese dwellings featured on the House in Yanakacho by KACH that features polycarbonate cladding and a residence by Tomoaki Uno Architects with an Aztec-informed pyramid.

Previous projects by Not Architects Studio include a home in Tokyo's Shinagawa district that has external terraces wrapped in metal mesh.

The photography is by Yasuhiro Takagi.

Project credits:

Architect: Not Architects Studio
Team: Tetsushi Tominaga, Lisa Ono, Aoi Nahata
Concept design: Lisa Ono
Consultant: Kinoshita structure engineers 

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The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features the dismantling of the iconic Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now!

Exclusive video footage by Dezeen shows the dismantling of Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower in the Ginza neighbourhood of Tokyo, which is set to be demolished.

One of the few remaining examples of the metabolism architecture style, protests, fundraisers and petitions had been attempting to save the tower since talks of demolition first arose in 2006.

Other stories in this week's newsletter include Balenciaga's faux fur-wrapped London store, BIG and Samoo's design for a "flood-proof" floating city in South Korea and Dezeen's guide to roof architecture and design.

Dezeen Agenda

Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Tuesday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to Dezeen Debate, which is sent every Thursday and contains a curated selection of highlights from the week, as well as Dezeen Daily, our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours on Dezeen.

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This exclusive video footage by Dezeen shows the demolition and dismantling of Kisho Kurokawa's metabolism Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo.

The dismantling of the iconic Nakagin Capsule Tower, which was designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, comes after the building fell into disrepair.

Built in 1972 in the Ginza neighbourhood of Tokyo, the Nakagin Capsule Tower is one of few the remaining examples of metabolism architecture – a post-war architectural movement that began in the 1960s.

Video footage shot by Dezeen shows the building surrounded by metal scaffolding and construction workers starting to dismantle the prefabricated capsules.

Construction workers are recorded installing soundproof panelling to cover the exterior of the building.

A preservation group named Nakagin Capsule Tower A606 Project, which is formed by former residents, is salvaging the original parts of Capsule A606. The video also shows members of its team carefully removing the tower's iconic circular windows and built-in furniture and bathroom units from the capsule's interior .

The Nakagin Capsule Tower was formed of two interconnected concrete towers of 11 and 13 storeys. Attached to the adjoining towers, 140 prefabricated steel modules were fixed onto the exterior of the concrete shafts.

The prefabricated units each measure 2.5 by four metres and can be characterised by the cubic form and a distinctive circular window.

Protests, fundraisers and petitions aimed to save the tower and implement building protection status since talks of demolition first arose in 2006.

The concept for the building involved the tower's individual capsules being repaired or replaced every 25 years, however, a lack of funding meant the capsules were never repaired and began to deteriorate.

Plans to disassemble the tower were confirmed in 2021, which led to its residents crowdfunding to preserve, donate or relocate the residential capsules.

Nakagin Capsule Tower A606 Project is among the groups that has retained one of the modules, which will be restored and exhibited by the group.

Across the world, iconic modernist and brutalist 20th-century buildings are being increasingly  demolished.

In early 2022, Marcel Breuer's Geller I house in Long Island, which was noted as one of Breuer's first US homes, was demolished overnight to make way for a tennis court.

In Scotland, North Lanarkshire Council announced that a brutalist 1960s concrete megastructure named The Centre Cumbernauld was set to be demolished and replaced.

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Architecture studio Pelli Clarke & Partners' 330-metre-tall A District tower has topped out in central Tokyo, making it Japan's tallest building.

Located in central Tokyo's Toronamon-Azabudai District, the mixed-use tower – one of a complex of three skyscrapers that Pelli Clarke & Partners is designing for developer Mori – has reached its full height.

At 330-metre-tall, A District takes the title of Japan's tallest building from Abeno Harukas, a 300-metre-tall building in Osaka that was also designed by Pelli Clarke & Partners and completed in 2014.

"Out of our three projects on the site, the main tower is perhaps the most visual on the skyline," said Pelli Clarke & Partners senior principal Fred Clarke. "It is the first thing visitors will see upon arrival in Tokyo."

The building is expected to be fully completed in 2023 and will house large-scale office space, luxury residences, medical and research centres, as well as schools and retail facilities.

Pelli Clarke & Partners began construction on A District in 2019.

The Toronamon-Azabudai District will span eight hectares and include two smaller towers by the studio, as well as a planted pergola designed by Heatherwick Studio.

The offices will occupy 204,000 square metres across 45 storeys and boast a largely column-free interior.

The tower's top 11 floors will house 91 luxury homes developed by luxury hotelier Aman and will feature interiors created by interior designer Yabu Pushelberg.

The studio explained that the structure will employ earthquake resistance systems, including emergency generators and emergency elevator systems to ensure safety in case of impact.

Education centres, such as The British School in Tokyo, will also be housed within the tower. It will boast an eight-floor campus that will be host to 700 international students.

The fifth and sixth floors of the 64-storey tower will be dedicated to the Keio University Center for Preventive Medicine, a medical treatment and research facility.

Pelli Clarke & Partners is an architecture studio founded by Argentine-American architect César Pelli, who died in 2019 aged 92. It was formerly known as Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects.

In 2020, the studio worked with Giorgio Armani to create a residential skyscraper in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida.

Earlier in 2021, Sou Fujimoto Architects and Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei unveiled a design for a 390-metre tall tower in Tokyo, which once built will surpass A District in height by 60 metres.

Top image is by DBOX for Mori.

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In this week's comments update, readers are debating the dismantling of the metabolist Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo and discussing other top stories.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower, an iconic Japanese housing block in Tokyo, is being demolished due to the decay of its concrete and steel structure.

Its interiors are in the process of being emptied out in preparation for asbestos removal, after which the building will be completely disassembled.

"Architecture was brave once"

Readers are divided. "An astonishing space!" said Katana. "Architecture was brave once. Today's is just sad."

Tim Humphreys agreed: "I hope some design museum buys at least one capsule and saves it for prosperity."

"Architecture in Japan has always been seen as an ephemeral art and Kurokawa would appreciate that his work is finite," replied Jay Cee.

Walter Astor felt differently: "Architects who claim to like this crude building should be forced to live in one of the 'pods' for a year or more. Only direct experience of the de-humanising severity of this appalling building would cure them of their elitist and misguided pretensions."

Should the housing block be saved? Join the discussion ›

Reader calls Oscar Niemeyer's final building "a timeless masterpiece"

Commenters are amazed by late Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer's final building, which has opened at the Château La Coste vineyard in southern France. The pavilion was designed in 2010, two years before Niemeyer's death aged 104.

"A beautiful, timeless masterpiece," said Alfred Hitchcock.

Apsco Radiales agreed: "Classic Niemeyer building. Built for all ages."

"A final masterpiece from the master," concluded Pa Varreon. "Absolute spatial perfection. I hope it is registered with the Humanity Heritage."

What do you think of the project? Join the discussion ›

Commenter thinks spherical venue "looks like a large black boil ready to burst"

Readers agree with Anna Minton, who writes that "more important than the aesthetic shortcomings of London's planned spherical venue, is the failure of democracy that is allowing it to be built."

"Looks like a large black boil ready to burst," said Tim Smallwood.

Tricia Ball was also annoyed: "London bending over and letting itself be taken by a grotesque American corporate machine. It must be stopped at all costs if we are to protect the dignity of our city and the quality of life of those who will be forced to live close by."

"London open to the highest bidder as always," replied Becks. "Profit first, politics a close second, while community and aesthetics are simply an afterthought."

Are commenters being harsh about the MSG Sphere? Join the discussion ›

Reader says they are "waiting for Renzo Piano's rap song" after Justin Bieber designs Vespa

Commenters are unimpressed by Justin Bieber's all-white redesign of Vespa's classic Sprint scooter. The musician also added a ring of icy white flames to give it a "Justin spin".

"Geez…" said HiKoo. "First Kanye now this guy. I'm waiting for Renzo Piano's rap song."

Zea Newland continued: "The monochromatic design is nice but the flames decal is trying too hard to be unique. Either confidently make these flames red or ditch them completely."

"Putting the 'mope' back in 'moped'," concluded Keith Dougal.

Would you buy a Bieber-designed scooter? Join the discussion ›

Comments update

Dezeen is the world's most commented architecture and design magazine, receiving thousands of comments each month from readers. Keep up to date on the latest discussions on our comments page.

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This week on Dezeen, demolition began on the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo – a 20th-century metabolist landmark designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa.

The housing block is being torn down due to the deterioration of its concrete and steel structure.

Its modular interiors are currently being cleared out in preparation for asbestos removal, after which the building will be completely disassembled.

Another building one step closer to demolition is the Marks and Spencer store on London's Oxford Street.

Mayor Sadiq Khan announced on Tuesday that he would not intervene to save the building following a "thorough assessment" of its carbon footprint.

In other architecture news, the final building by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer opened at the Château La Coste vineyard in southern France.

Designed two years before Niemeyer's death in 2012, the curved white pavilion was conceived to sit comfortably within its peaceful surroundings.

A Kengo Kuma-designed museum dedicated to author Hans Christian Andersen officially opened its doors this week in Odense, Denmark, following a soft launch last June.

Drawing on the fantastical worlds of Andersen's fairytales, the building is surrounded by winding maze-like hedges and features underground exhibition spaces that can be glimpsed through strategic cut-outs in the landscape.

In design news, this week saw the reveal of the "world's first" space lounge – a lounge-style travel capsule that was designed by space tourism company Space Perspective to offer a more comfortable experience than a traditional spacecraft.

As holidays outside of Earth's atmosphere become ever more realistic, we rounded up ten recent designs for space tourism including two hotels and a space station designed by Philippe Starck.

This week also saw American outdoor equipment company SylvanSport unveil its Go camping trailer, which has a built-in pop-up tent and can be attached to almost any car.

Other popular projects this week included a storage-heavy apartment in north London, a house by the Norfolk coast and an archaeologist's office in Brasil with a garden courtyard.

Our lookbooks this week focused on exposed plaster walls and homes with sculptural staircases.

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The dismantling of the metabolist Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo has begun, with the interiors of its modular capsule homes already resembling a "demolition site".

The iconic Japanese housing block, which was designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa, is being demolished due to the decay of its concrete and steel structure.

Its interiors are in the process of being emptied out in preparation for asbestos removal, which will then be followed by the building's complete disassembly.

Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower was built in 1972 in Tokyo's Ginza neighbourhood. It comprises two interconnected concrete towers, onto which 140 prefabricated steel capsules are bolted. These pods contain tiny homes.

Plans to disassemble the tower were confirmed last year, prompting residents to begin crowdfunding to preserve, donate or relocate the capsules.

One of the groups retaining a module is named the Nakagin Capsule Tower A606 Project, which is restoring and modifying the capsule numbered A606.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower A606 Project told Dezeen that while today marks the beginning of demolition works to the building's exterior, much of the tower's interior has already been dismantled.

"Demolition work will start on 12 April, but interior dismantling and other work has already started," the group's representative Akiko Ishimaru said. "So inside it already looks like a demolition site," she told Dezeen.

Ishimaru stated that demolition work will begin with removing any remaining interior elements, alongside asbestos.

Following this, the capsules will be removed and then the concrete towers that support them will be demolished. Demolition is expected to take until the end of 2022.

Prior to 12 April, Ishimaru and the Nakagin Capsule Tower A606 Project have been documenting the building with measurements, photos, videos and 3D scans.

The group plans to preserve one of the pods and transform it into a "mobile capsule", which it said will honour "Kurokawa's concept of 'architecture in motion'" and adaptability.

Kurokawa, who died in 2007, designed the Nakagin Capsule Tower housing during Japan's metabolist movement, which he pioneered along with Kiyonori Kikutake and Fumihiko Maki.

Metabolist architecture championed buildings that were adaptable and replaceable.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower's tiny homes were designed to be rotated out and replaced every 25 years. A lack of funding meant this was never realised, leading to their dilapidation.

Kurokawa's goal for the tower was to attract single businessmen looking for a compact and conveniently located apartment.

Each of the building's capsule homes is animated by a round window and measures 2.5 metres by four metres. They contain built-in living spaces and furniture.

"While we were inside the capsule surveying the capsule, we saw many people outside the window," reflected Ishimaru. "They seemed to have come to see the last of the building."

Twentieth century architecture is under threat in cities around the world. One of the most vulnerable styles is brutalism – buildings characterised by bold monolithic forms cast from concrete.

In the USA alone, brutalist icons including Paul Rudolph's Burroughs Wellcome building and Shoreline Apartments are among those to have fallen victim to the wrecking ball.

In a series of interviews, architectural historians recently told Dezeen that this wave of demolition is partly by political ideology but also by the ageing nature of these buildings.

The photography is courtesy of the Nakagin Capsule Tower A606 Project unless stated.

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A pair of internal courtyards filled with plants bring daylight and greenery into the living spaces of this home designed by Apollo Architects & Associates for a site in central Tokyo.

The clients for the Timeless residence, a couple who had lived at the property in Tokyo's Minamiaoyama district for many years, wanted to redevelop the site after their children moved out.

Apollo Architects & Associates was tasked with designing a new home that would make the most of the corner site in this quiet residential neighbourhood.

The house presents a mostly closed appearance to the surrounding streets, which is intended to enhance the owners' privacy and security.

The building comprises two concrete volumes stacked vertically and separated by a narrow band of glazing. The facades feature a subtle surface texture created by the cedar formwork used to cast the concrete walls.

On one of the street-facing elevations, the upper volume extends out at an angle to follow the line of the pavement and shelter the main entrance.

Behind the solid outer facades, the house's interior feels more open and connected to the sky due to the inclusion of two parallel courtyards at the front and rear of the building.

These open-air spaces are lined with glazing to ensure plenty of natural light reaches the adjacent living areas, while also allowing views of a bamboo garden and other greenery.

"The main courtyard is on the south side and features a bamboo grove that draws the eye when one steps into the entryway," the architects pointed out.

"Because the living room, study, and bedrooms all face onto this courtyard, the clients and their dog can enjoy outdoor time as they please."

A second, narrower courtyard on the north side functions as a lightwell that draws daylight down into the entrance area. A smaller lounge on the first floor is also flanked by glazed walls lining this void.

On the south side of the main living space, the upper storey extends beyond the glazed facade to protect the interior from direct sunlight.

A stairwell topped with a skylight connects the entrance hall with additional living spaces and bedrooms on the first floor, including the casual lounge area and an adjacent roof terrace overlooking the courtyard below.

This level also contains the main bedroom along with four further rooms. The bedroom is lined with full-height windows providing a view of the bamboo trees.

According to the architects, the house's design responds to a perceived shift in the requirements of homeowners following the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In the post-Covid era, residential clients are less interested in rooms with clear functions or houses that are mere collections of individual rooms," the studio claimed.

The Timeless house aims to provide flexible spaces with different moods and atmospheres, which the occupants can use in various ways throughout the day.

"Families want homes where they spend meaningful quality time, maintaining both distance and closeness as they cross casually between indoor and outdoor spaces, almost as if they were traveling within their own house," the architects added.

"We believe that this kind of free environment is what clients will be seeking in residential architecture in years to come."

Apollo Architects & Associates is based in Tokyo and was founded in 2000 by Satoshi Kurosaki.

The firm's previous projects include a skinny house squeezed onto a tiny plot in Tokyo, and a multigenerational family home arranged around a walled garden.

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Overloaded cyberpunk masks, hulking exoskeletons and other imagined wearable tech feature in an exhibition by artist Ikeuchi Hiroto, who mixes pop culture references and model-making.

Running until 30 January 2022 at Tokyo's Sai Gallery, the Ikeuchi Hiroto exhibition shows several years of the artist's work, which combines readymade plastic models with technological hardware and industrial parts.

The artist draws on the pop culture influences of his childhood – such as Star Wars, Zoids and Gundam – to inspire his creations, as well as model making, a popular hobby in Japan.

The result is a series of wearable sculptures that are both futuristic and nostalgic, with a cyberpunk aesthetic.

A key component of the Sai Gallery exhibition is Hiroto's series of headgear, each laden with an intricate assemblage of gadgetry and small parts, including items such as virtual reality masks, headphones and flash drives.

As in all of Hiroto's works, the products buried within the sculptures still function, so a wearer can use them from inside the artwork, giving each piece its own experiential component.

Unfortunately, this is only available to the buyer of the artwork, as the pieces are too fragile to be handled within the gallery space.

Other works shown at the Sai Gallery include a full-body suit that Hiroto has created together with the body-enhancing robotics company Skeletonics.

There is also a collaboration with the interactive design company Prototype Inc, designers of the "Tekki cockpit", a cockpit-style simulator for the Tekki video game.

For Hiroto's version of the cockpit, titled TYPE00R, he has rebuilt the machine using contemporary technology.

"The interpretation of his works is dependent on the viewer's unique frame of reference," said Sai Gallery.

"With the combination of internationally recognisable pop imagery and the distinctly Japanese model culture, his works simultaneously evoke a sense of nostalgia, whilst hinting at the near-future through a cyberpunk aesthetic."

The new artworks are exhibited alongside some of Hiroto's earlier pieces to form his largest solo gallery show to date.

The artist began by making dioramas from models and computer components as part of his student work at the Tama Art University's Department of Information Design.

Recently, he collaborated with Balenciaga on its Spring 2022 campaign, for which the models wore Hiroto's headgear and exoskeletons.

The fashion brand is fond of pop culture references, having collaborated with TV show The Simpsons on another campaign and released clothes in the game Fortnite.

Hiroto has also worked with the brands Gentle Monster and Shu Uemura.

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