The masterplan connects to the 16-hectare Hibiya Park and looks across to the Imperial Palace to create a 230-hectare ‘green heart’ for Tokyo. PLP is the master designer and placemaking strategist for the entire 1.1 million square metre development, the largest in the metropolitan area of Tokyo, as well as the architect for two of the four mixed-use towers on the 6.5-hectare site.
Site Overview
The site consists of three districts: North, Central and South. In the North District are the Imperial Hotel’s new main building, designed by ATTA, and the PLP Architecture designed North Tower, which offers premium hospitality-oriented offices, commercial facilities, serviced flats and rental housing. In the Central District, which is connected to Hibiya Park by an open-air ‘park bridge’, the Central Tower, also designed by PLP, will be equipped with offices, a hotel, banquet hall, a multipurpose hall and cross-industry co-creation hubs.
In the South District, the South Tower, designed by Nikken Sekkei, will comprise of offices, a hotel and wellness promotion facilities. The ‘park bridge’ connection to Hibiya Park creates a larger loop of pedestrian walkways, linking to surrounding stations and districts. This creates an expansive pedestrian network, with safe and green routes, in a heavily urban area that has previously been dominated by vehicular traffic.
The Tokyo Cross Park Vision – 3 Uniting Concepts
In the Tokyo Cross Park Vision, key parts of the city and culture cross over, uniting to create a range of new urban experiences.
Crossover 1 – Uniting natural life and urban life
The Tokyo Cross Park envisions the growth of the capital’s green space, outwards from the Imperial Palace and Hibiya Park into the urban districts of the city.
The Uchisaiwaicho district will connect its natural environment with that of the park through two pedestrian ‘park bridges’ that span the busy dividing road. This link creates a 32-hectare human-centric and walkable environment rich in wildlife, water, and public meeting spaces aimed at bringing a focus on wellbeing, sociability and connection to nature.
Crossover 2 – Uniting Tokyo’s top talent
The development is in the most prominent area of Tokyo and connects on all sides to the capital’s most important districts. It is a short distance from the old CBD areas of Otemachi and Marunouchi, the culture, retail and leisure districts of Yarakucho and Ginza, the Kasumigaseki governmental district, and the new CBDs of Shinbashi and Toranomon.
PLP Architecture has designed the site for maximum possible connectivity to encourage top talents – people, institutions and companies – to engage in this new district. A programme of hyper-mixed functions, amenities and co-creation spaces provide the framework for the ‘best of Tokyo’ to come together and envision how the next generation will work, play, live and create
new ideas.
Crossover 3 – Uniting Japan’s top ten companies
Ten leading Japanese companies, which are rooted in this site, have been brought together to co-create ideas for the future development of Japan.
By uniting each individual strength, such as urban development, digital technology, hospitality, wellbeing, carbon-neutrality and disaster prevention, the masterplan will establish a next-generation smart city that aims to tackle critical urban issues and generate new value for the future. Source by PLP Architecture.