NIKKEN SEKKEI elevates shibuya scramble square with undulating tower

NIKKEN SEKKEI presents an undulating ‘scramble square’ intervention to tokyo‘s shibuya station, a major hub for nine of japan‘s railway lines. the hub transports 3.3 million passengers each day. aiming for a safe and pleasant city for all the visitors, in addition to its traffic convenience, shibuya’s central area has been undergoing a major urban redevelopment with numerous projects to improve traffic flows around the station, construct disaster-resistant facilities, attract new industries such as it, and enhance its global appeal as the cultural capital. responding to the complex and inhomogenous context, the project is organized with three distinctive design features reflecting the district’s characteristics — the ‘urban core,’ ‘drawing eyes to the corners, and ‘shibuya sky.’

images courtesy of NIKKEN SEKKEI

NIKKEN SEKKEI designs its shibuya scramble square with an ‘urban core,’ or an urban space connecting vertical movements. because of the valley topography peculiar to this area, the arterial roads dividing the town, and relocation and extension/reconstruction repeated by railway companies, shibuya was fragmented and became a city that is difficult for pedestrians to navigate. in order to solve these problems, the vertical atrium space dubbed as the “urban core” was designed to realize smooth longitudinal movements. the urban core made its presence known in the city with its unique ‘dented’ tower form. its façade features rows of louvers spiraling upwards, breaking up its enormous scale to provide a sense of continuity with the surrounding urban landscape.

drawing eyes to the corners, NIKKEN SEKKEI designs its shibuya scramble square to connect the super high-rise and the city below. in shibuya, roads and railways radiate out from its center on the valley floor, making ‘corners’ more visible than ‘sides.’ the tower is designed to draw the eye towards its corners to correspond to the town’s urban landscape. each pane of low-E glass on the façade is over four meters tall. the shape of the panes transforms slightly on the tower’s corners, changing the appearance of their reflections. the white ceramic print placed over the glass panes is designed to increase its transparency towards the corners to create a visual flow. the flow starting at the lower portion of the building continues upwards to the rooftop observation deck just as the tower rising from the street to the sky.

the team at NIKKEN SEKKEI integrates a ‘shibuya sky’ observatory to its scramble square as a place to escape the bustle of tokyo without leaving it. rising over 750 feet, the tower is crowned with the observatory featuring an outstanding panoramic view of tokyo. this vast observatory deck is intentionally left empty to free visitors from the hustle and bustle of the city. the deck’s perimeter is surrounded by transparent glass screens to provide the unobstructed 360-degree view and allow visitors to simultaneously feel tokyo’s dynamic energy and a sense of unity with the sky. as a new floating public space, shibuya sky connects shibuya’s radiating townscape and rising skyscrapers.

project info:

project title: shibuya scramble square (first phase, east tower)

architecture: NIKKEN SEKKEI, kengo kuma and associates 

location: shibuya-ku, tokyo

project type: commercial, offices, observatory, parking

clients: tokyu corporation, east japan railway company, and tokyo metro co.

design team and supervision: shibuya station district development project consortium (NIKKEN SEKKEI + tokyu architects & engineers inc. + JR-east design corporation + metro development co.)

general contractor: shibuya scramble square east tower new construction project consortium (tokyu architects & engineers and taisei corporation)

completion: august 2019