Tokyo International Forum 5-1 Marunouchi 3-chome
Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-0005
Japan
Rafael Vinoly 1996
Located on a complex site in the center of
Tokyo, on the edge of the Ginza commercial and entertainment district and
the Maronouchi business district, The Tokyo International Forum
is Japan's largest congress center.
It was built following an open international competition in 1989 held
by the Union Internationale des Architectes,which was won by the New York architect Rafeal
Vinoly.
The irregular shaped site, occupying an
entire city block that was originally occupied by a complex of buildings
constituting Tokyo’s City Hall, is also situated between two of Tokyo’s
busiest transportation hubs; Yurakucho Station on the site’s southern
boundary, one of the city’s most important subway stations and Tokyo Central
Station, two blocks to the north, that is the city’s regional and national
railway link.
The sweeping form of the volume that contains
the Glass Hall, the main entrance lobby to the entire complex, forms an arc
that follows the lines of the bounding railway to the east. This volume is
intersected on its east side by a lower narrow rectangular curving volume
clad in metal which houses meeting rooms. The west side of the complex is
demarcated by four almost cubical volumes, arranged sequentially in size,
from the largest on the longer northern boundary to smallest on the shorter
southern boundary. These four volumes contain Halls A, C and D, which
contain large performance spaces and Hall B which contains a versatile
conference room. Each of these volumes is treated as an independent
building, primarily accessed through their respective lobbies along the
adjacent street, but also accessed through the Glass Hall where a pedestrian
ramp lines the interior perimeter winding its way up to pedestrian bridges
that pierce its glass facade and span an exterior plaza located between the
east and west side buildings toward the performance hall’s suspended
volumes.
The
granite-paved exterior plaza between the arc form
and the cubes is a public plaza that allows pedestrian traffic flow through
the site. This public plaza also contains vegetation particular to Japan,
sculptural installations, outdoor seating areas, access to the subway
concourse one level below grade, cafes and shops, while allowing access to
the performance hall lobbies and to the Glass Hall.
Immediately upon entry to the Glass Hall from
the plaza the visitor descends down an escalator one level to the
information desk and to access the rest of The Forum. The soaring space of
the Glass Hall, to 60 meters high, is animated by a constant flow of people
and events. Its crisscrossing pedestrian bridges at its upper levels and its
enormous scale seem like something out of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
The structural system of this dramatic atrium
space is extremely light, its transparent facade and ceiling made possible
by an innovative truss system of arched steel beams in compression and cable
elements in tension in repetition over its 225 meter length, all supported
by only two columns located on the center of the longitudinal axis at each
end of the hall. This hull-like form of the ceiling structure seen through
the laminated glass facade creates a distinctive mark on the Tokyo skyline.
Kari Silloway 2004
How to visit
The Forum is a one-minute
walk from Yurakucho Station (connected by B1 concourse) or a five-minute
walk from JR Tokyo Station (connected by B1 concourse with Keiyo Line at
Tokyo Station).