#takanawa-gateway-city

#takanawa-gateway-city

TeamLab Planets quickly made a name for itself after opening its doors in 2018. It holds the Guinness World Record for the most-visited museum dedicated to a single group or artist, bringing in more than 2.5 million visitors from April 2023 to March 2024.

Every city contains two transportation systems. One is the visible network of roads, rail lines, sidewalks, and bus routes mapped in planning documents. The other is the invisible geography of privilege and exclusion embedded within it: the neighborhoods that received highways instead of parks, the communities whose bus routes were cut, the sidewalks that abruptly end at the edge of a district.

Kobe is a city where the sea and mountains are close together, with its urban area spreading across the slopes at the base of the mountains. In the Sannomiya area, the current city center, the most important urban axis connecting the sea to the mountains is Flower Road, running north-south from Shin-Kobe Station to the port.

Once a nice-to-have niche urban design concept, TOD has become an essential part of many urban neighborhoods. It has helped address the shortage of housing by enabling the development of higher-density residential communities near transit stations. It has helped revitalize countless once-deteriorating or static urban enclaves near transit hubs by activating sidewalks near the developments. And it has spurred walking and transit use, enabling residents of TODs to reduce or eliminate automobile dependency.

The project explores the integration of multiple programs within a shared spatial system, proposing a development in which residential, commercial, hospitality, and public functions coexist in close proximity. Instead of organizing these uses as separate buildings with independent infrastructures, the proposal concentrates them within a connected structure that allows circulation, services, and public areas to operate collectively.

Instead of functioning as decorative greenery, the courtyard organizes circulation, gathering spaces, and planting into a three-dimensional landscape where residents can move, pause, and interact. The site presented several typical urban challenges. Tall buildings restricted sunlight and views, while circulation routes occupied much of the available ground area, making open space feel narrow and shaded.

Tenger City is an urban planning proposal by Sydney-based practice Squareone Atelier, awarded as a Top 3 Winner in the Hunnu City International Urban Planning Competition 2025. The project proposes a new satellite city located approximately 52 kilometers south of Ulaanbaatar, , with phased development planned between 2025 and 2045. The proposal forms part of Mongolia's broader Ulaanbaatar 2040 Masterplan and the national Vision 2050 framework, which aim to support decentralization, resilience, and long-term urban growth.

Workplaces serve as centers to support business transactions, often with cues from traditional corporate styling but little else. For its new office in Tokyo, the staff at KOKUYO, a leading manufacturer of office furniture, stationery, and supplies, envisioned a combination work and learning hub that sparks child-like imagination. The 5,317-square-foot space, completed by DDAA in collaboration with KOKUYO's own design team, centers on the theme of learning.

Residence AV is a courtyard house located in a dense residential neighborhood in Bruges, Belgium. Designed by YAMA architects, the project responds to a paradoxical brief: a strong desire for connection to the surrounding context combined with an equally strong need for privacy. The client, living alone, was attracted to the social presence and perceived safety of the neighborhood, yet sought a dwelling that could withdraw from direct views and support a more introspective way of living.

This project is an architect's home and office located in a densely populated residential area of Tokyo. As there were other houses adjacent to the boundary of the site on all sides except for the north side, where the road is located, it was decided to install a large window facing the road, but the challenge was how to create a bright garden view through the north-facing window.

Intervening at the head office of Imabari Shipbuilding's Marugame Site presented an opportunity to reorganize the working environment of multiple parties involved in the construction of large tankers, formerly scattered across a vast industrial area of 0.88 km.

I grew up visiting this house. It originally belonged to my grandfather's older sister, and whenever I traveled down from Iwate, the northern prefecture in Japan where I grew up, this was where the family gathered. Later, I worked as a rehabilitation consultant at hospitals in Osaka and Yokohama. I moved, but this place was always in the back of my mind.

Sometimes the best architecture knows when to turn away. UK studio Denizen Works just completed their first project in Japan, and it does exactly that. The House in Onomichi presents an almost entirely blank facade to the street, creating what founder Murray Kerr calls an "enigmatic quality." But this isn't architecture being rude. It's architecture understanding that privacy can be the ultimate luxury.