Architecture in Tokyo: A Ginza Walk

4 Sep 2008 Category: Architecture, Japan

After our relaxed stroll along the architectural chic of Omotesando Street, it’s time to turn our attention to that other great center of unashamed consumption: Ginza! There was a time when this district was passé. Its former glamour had migrated across town to said Omotesando. Ginza was filling up with discount stores and chain stores in the 90’s. But Tokyo boasts an inexhaustible appetite for luxury, and for the past eight years Ginza has been building itself up again to rival the fashionable west side of town. And fancy brands demand fancy architecture. Here’s PingMag’s pick of the best. Note that many of these buildings develop their true glamour when lit at night — it’s glitzy Ginza, after all. So go for an evening walk after your shopping frenzy! And see the Google Map below for more.

Written by Jessica Niles DeHoff
Photos by Tim Rudder

To begin with, many of Ginza’s buildings fall into the category of clean and glossy design. Beautiful and innovative curtain-wall systems line the main streets of this part of town, all perfectly finished thanks to Japan’s peerless construction techniques. They may be differentiated by fritted or patterned glass, or translucent materials instead of transparent, but together they make the backdrop against which the unusual buildings stand out.

Now, let’s take the train to Hibiya Station for:

1. The Peninsula Tokyo

OK, this example of gaudiness isn’t actually in Ginza, but it is worthwhile to see Tokyo’s first new freestanding luxury hotel in nearly a decade. How practical that it is directly connected to the Hibiya subway station below (and Yurakucho is nearby)! It’s situated on a wedge-shaped piece of land just a stone’s throw from both Hibiya Park and the Imperial Palace. Though The Peninsula’s exterior is unassuming, its interior features a dramatic atrium reaching all the way up to the 24th floor bar, which commands a dramatic view of the central city. Architect Kazukiyo Sato may have intended this as a nod to the Peninsula in Hong Kong.
Then, come back down to earth, step outside and look around: Behind the hotel, the skyline of the Marunouchi district is prickling with construction cranes…

Heading east on Harumi Street, you’ll approach Ginza proper. As soon as you pass under the Yamanote Line train tracks, you’ll immediately feel a shift: Buildings are more crowded, people are in a hurry, everything is for sale (and not cheap). On the left, you can spot one of the temples of consumerism: the Sony Building, whose interior flows along a spiral pathway inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York. Now you know!

On the right, you’ll find:

2. Maison Hermès

The Maison Hermès Tokyo was built by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in 2001. Actually, this was the project that supposedly sparked Ginza’s rejuvenation. The slender tower is built entirely of translucent glass blocks, but approach its flank at street level and you’ll be treated to a few clever windows that are like peepholes displaying luxury watches and scarves. Atop the building sits a horse and rider carrying a flag: a sculptural interpretation of the Hermès logo. How fancy!

Walk a block further down and on the right:

3. Armani

Though it’s bold and glamourous like the brand, the twelve-story Armani Ginza tower that opened nearly a year ago is one of the few structures in Ginza that has a local flavour. Designed by Italian Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, its façade uses bamboo-like forms to create a pattern that evokes traditional Japanese fabrics while at the same time creating a privacy screen for the interior.

A few steps farther along the street you’ll stumble across J’adore Dior on the right:

4. Dior

The Dior building was constructed in 2004, and though Ricardo Bofill was the architect for the base building, the real star here is the exterior skin. The white perforated screen, designed by Kumiko Inui, is particularly lovely at night when its embedded fibre optics are lit. Touch the surface!

Just across the street from Dior, take a look at:

5. Gucci

Gucci’s two-year-old flagship store was the luxury brand’s first venture into creating new freestanding architecture. The eight-story tower is clad in bronze and silvery glass panels in an elongated checkerboard pattern, designed by architect James Carpenter. And don’t forget that the overall branding concept is by Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini. See the building’s layered structure in 3D by Brooklyn Digital Foundry.

Now, walk further down Harumi Street to the next crossing and turn left onto Ginza Street for three more glittering buildings.

After two blocks, on the left there is this mysterious cube:

6. Chanel

During the day, the Chanel tower opposite the Matsuya department store looks like a simple black box. Look closer, however, and you can see that the materials chosen for the building’s exterior evoke the brand’s iconic designs: The boxy pattern of the curtain wall resembles the quilted leather of a handbag, for example, and the checked white frit pattern on the ground-level glass evokes the nubby tweed of a Chanel suit.

Peter Marino headed the design for the media wall that makes up the entire ten-story façade; as soon as the sun goes down, the building lights up with visuals, as do others in Ginza.

Right after the Chanel extravaganza, turn left in a small side street. Then on the right, first comes a curved line:

7. De Beers

One of the newest additions to Ginza is the De Beers headquarters, which opened this spring. The glass and steel tower squiggles up towards the sky, a remarkable contortion in such a confined space. In fact, this alley is so narrow it’s hard to get a good look at the structure, but its claw-like top can be spotted from all over the neighbourhood.
Designer Jun Mitsui was also the brain behind Omotesando’s Jewels of Aoyama, and there are many similarities between the two projects: an interest in breaking up volume three-dimensionally, a contrast between materials, and most of all a strong vertical orientation.

Further down on the right again, we arrive at:

8. Mikimoto Ginza2

A few steps away is Toyo Ito’s Mikimoto Ginza2, a pink confection with amoeba-shaped windows that were intended to recall girly things such as pearls, petals and bubbles. Despite the rainy and humid Tokyo weather lately, the façade’s glossy surface has been only slightly stained in its two-year life. Like Jun Mitsui, Ito has done work both here and on Omotesando, where his Tod’s boutique uses a similar strategy of irregular openings in a solid façade.

Evidently it’s not just the names of the boutiques that repeat in Ginza and Omotesando; the architects, too, tend to pop up in both places and the fun thing is to look for the differences. Want to see more? You have to go back to the Chanel cube and turn right onto Ginza Street.

9. Swatch

Follow Ginza Street for several blocks, until you spot the hanging gardens of the Nicholas G. Hayek Center, also called the Swatch Building, on the left:

This boxy white building opened last summer right on Ginza’s main drag, where it breaks up the monotony of storefronts with its open, park-like ground level full of live plants. Architect Shigeru Ban often makes use of paper tubes and other recycled materials in his designs for refugee housing and disaster-relief projects; the Swatch building translates his interest in ecology into a more polished and corporate look.

And finally, a map to help your excursion:

View Larger Map

Very warm thanks once again to Tim Rudder for his hyper-stylish photographs!

23 Comments

1. Out of all these buildings, I like the Swatch one the most. It seems very modern. :)

   Posted by: Kym on September 4th, 2008 at 7:43 pm

2. Your google maps embed is cool, but it’s missing the StreetView button. If I go to that location from maps.google.com I get a street view button :)

   Posted by: Barto on September 4th, 2008 at 11:08 pm

3. Wow, just great :-o
   I loooove the architecture in Japan. They try to do something out of the ordinary, awesome :-D

   Posted by: mee on September 4th, 2008 at 11:16 pm

4. i think it’s so much of Ginza Architecture. It’s just goes globalized, most of them are not Japanese Architect..

   Posted by: mc on September 4th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

5. HAHA, LOVE THEM ALL!

   Posted by: GK on September 5th, 2008 at 2:06 am

6. I always stay at the Peninsula Hotel in Tokyo love it!

   Posted by: Anonymous on September 5th, 2008 at 3:21 am

7. Love this article!!!

   Japan is several steps ahead in architecture comparing to other countries in the world!!!

   Posted by: Sravaka on September 5th, 2008 at 3:39 am

8. These pictures are awesome, but I have to say that the Maison Hermès is even more astounding in person!

   Posted by: Jane on September 5th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

9. Wehn in Tokyo, it is obvious that the country is turned towards the future whereas in Europe, we are the past…

   Posted by: Lola Lopsa on September 5th, 2008 at 6:13 pm

10. Incredible. I’m very jealous, the buildings are so cool and the overall experience of walking around there must be amazing. Europe could learn a thing or two from this kind of place. Good post!

    Posted by: Architect on September 5th, 2008 at 6:32 pm

11. [...] PingMag рассказывает нам о Токио с фотографиями интересных архитектурных решений. [...]

    Posted by: Самые интересные новости из RSS за последнюю неделю. on September 6th, 2008 at 9:00 pm

12. Wow! That’s gorgeous!
    The ones I like the most are Maison Hermès and Mikimoto Ginza2.

    Posted by: Rafael Masoni on September 7th, 2008 at 1:41 am

13. the Dior building was always the most striking to me while strolling around Ginza.

    I am really sad I didn’t get to see the Chanel building though, I love the little umbrella motion graphics floating up the side.

    Please keep doing these little photo/architecture tours! these are fantastic, you should head to Osaka to do one.

    also, you guys should think about doing kind of the reverse of this and go to the more remote areas, or the really dense less urban areas for a little photo tour.

    If I was in Japan that is what I would do!

    Posted by: Andrew Hake on September 7th, 2008 at 3:50 pm

14. Thanks for these wonderful pics. For a lover of all things designer I think I am in heaven! Tokyo is now top of my list for places to visit.

    Posted by: Buy My House on September 8th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

15. you guys always make me long to be back in japan…

    Posted by: josh l on September 8th, 2008 at 8:44 pm

16. all big cities in japan have some nice architecture. the majority of buildings still only serves one purpose so they are ugly as hell ;)

    Posted by: Nppn on September 9th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

17. [...] takes us on a new architectural tour of a Tokyo district, this time Ginza. The piece was shot by Tim Rudder. time saved time [...]

    Posted by: PingMag: Architecture Tour of Ginza | aboutCREATION on September 10th, 2008 at 5:24 pm

18. wonderful interiors!
    thanks for sharing!

    Posted by: chinger liefde on September 22nd, 2008 at 2:29 am

19. Japan is such a interesting place. I went to in Tokyo and Hakuba in 98 and I´ve got good memories about this country.
    Must go again soon!
    Cheers!

    Posted by: Flavio Hebaru on September 24th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

20. [...] buildings in Ginza today include the De Beers, Mikimoto and Swatch buildings and are featured in “Architecture in Tokyo: A Ginza Walk” at PingMag which offers views and information on the interesting architecture found in the [...]

    Posted by: The Lights, Fashion & Architecture of Ginza on October 3rd, 2008 at 8:57 pm

21. [...] http://pingmag.jp/2008/09/04/architecture-in-tokyo-a-ginza-walk/ [...]

    Posted by: Art & Fashion « Tendencias De Moda/Fashion Trends on October 14th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

22. [...] PingMag> Architecture in Tokyo: A Ginza Walk [...]

    Posted by: The Draw of Tokyo « Sath’s Travelog on January 27th, 2009 at 10:25 am

23. [...] Image credit: PingMag [...]

    Posted by: mydeco on tour: Greetings from Tokyo « mydeco blog on January 12th, 2010 at 12:21 am

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