Hoshino Architects Park Court Jingu Kitasando The Tower Wins the Architecture MasterPrize 2024 - Shibuya City - Japan

Hoshino Architects proudly announce that Park Court Jingu Kitasando The Tower has been awarded WINNER in the High Rise Buildings category of the Architecture MasterPrize 2024.

The Architecture MasterPrize is a global architecture award recognizing design excellence and advancing appreciation for quality architectural design.

Park Court Jingu Kitasando The Tower

While being located right in the middle of Tokyo, Park Court Jingu Kitasando The Tower will stand among three of the most lushly green spaces in Tokyo—Meiji Shrine, its outer gardens, as well as the Shinjuku Imperial Garden. The location provides tremendous freedom, as it offers great access to the JR Yamanote and Tokyo Metro subway lines, which are at the heart of the city’s transportation network.

This district will become a node where the urban functionality of heavy foot and road traffic intersects with the lush green spaces where birds and butterflies can stretch their wings. As the site varies in elevation, this project takes advantage of the landscape to weave in a variety of greenery, paths, water, and other elements to create an exterior space that transforms the surrounding scenery, providing the building façade with an everchanging appearance every time one passes by.

NEST design concept

This project interweaves organic vitality with versatile connections brought about by the unique location to realize a comfortable architectural NEST. The design creates a woven exterior, further accentuating the delicate, soft, curved geometries throughout the entire building. The eastern facade has a regular, linear shape, which creates a sharp expression that is rich with a variety of appearances, depending on the angle of view. Incorporating the NEST design concept to the interior provides a consistent feel and connection with the woven building exterior. In the entrance lounge, a three-dimensional weave of the walls and floors creates a beautiful space that sculpts the atrium into a passage that guides visitors inside.

The building opens into a dynamic space, with a three-story vaulted ceiling that traces the large, elongated wall from the entrance. A stunning chandelier and bold staircase, diagonally leading underground, builds a central interior that can be seen as the heart of the building. The interior design, three-dimensionally weaving together vertical and horizontal lines, accomplishes enjoyably dynamic communal areas.

Design

Giving the exterior design a unique woven nest-like facade adds value to the building as an iconic tower in a dynamic city, allowing for beautiful views close up, and from a distance in various surrounding locations and above. The lighting layout accentuates the wavy design at the top of the tower, giving it a three-dimensional appearance at night, while the exterior lights softly illuminate the green facade, maintaining an inviting space after sunset. The ground and rooftop sections are planned to be connected to the surrounding greenery, and the interior mainly uses materials of wood to create an atmosphere of being inside a tree. The site is located at the junction of a long sidewalk and a crossroads, where the firm designed the site to be easily accessible, not only for residents, but also for the surrounding community. As such, the landscape was designed to be open to the surrounding environment. This allows for walking and other activities, with a pastel green wall planned to connect the private and public boundaries gently, while preserving residential privacy.

Environmental considerations

The ecological focus of the project was to hone in on softly connecting the natural environment, while expressing sensibilities towards urban fauna and their local diversity. The use of various tree species in landscape design serves to connect the surrounding natural environments. By bringing together the separated urban greenery, and consolidating the local green infrastructure, the habitat range of birds and other urban wildlife can expand, and more biodiversity within this area can be introduced. Solar panels are installed above the rooftop access, providing a sustainable source of energy to operate the tower's main facilities, including the elevators and communal lights, making the building safer during an event of natural disaster or emergency.

About Hoshino Architects

Founded by Hiroaki Hoshino in 2012, Hoshino Architects is an architectural practice with extensive international experience. Respecting the value of historical, cultural, and climatic contexts, our aim is to create architecture and urban design for future generations. Hiroaki Hoshino has practiced architectural design in London, Dubai, and Tokyo, and is qualified as an Architect in both the UK and Japan. He joined Hopkins Architects’ London office in 2000 and was appointed 'Representative in Japan’ in 2012. He currently oversees the British firm’s projects in Japan as Project Director. Since setting up his own design office, Hoshino Architects, in Tokyo in 2012, he has been working on residential, hotel, resort, retail, and office projects across Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore, as well as in other Asian countries.

Photo credit: Kawasumi-Kobayashi Kenji Photograph Office Photo provision by Mitsui Fudosan Residential