Tokyo, Japan
Situated in the Minato City of Tokyo, Azabudai Hills is Thomas Heatherwick’s first district and a culmination of a thirty-year-long regeneration process commissioned by Mori Building Company.
The studio designed the public realm and lower podium level architecture which includes homes, shops and restaurants, a hotel, cultural facilities, and the studio’s first school.
Azabudai Hills continues Mori’s commitment to creating garden cities by featuring many casual gathering spaces throughout 2.4ha of nature and public gardens which include walkable facades, an informal amphitheater, and multiple waterscapes.
Working with a complicated, irregular-shaped plot spanning more than eight hectares, the studio has sought to bring harmony and create a distinctive identity that is particular to Tokyo.
The team devised a pergola-like system scaled up to district proportions to organize and unify many different elements of various sizes.
In this way, the design allows for significant green space both at ground level and climbing up the podium buildings, without sacrificing connectivity to the ground.
Echoing the natural forms of the project’s valley setting, the undulating structure rises like a gently sloping hillside before puncturing the ground to allow natural light to pour deep into the basement retail zones.
Azabudai Hills opened in 2023 and is expected to receive twenty-five to thirty million visitors annually.
Project: Azabudai Hills
Architects: Heatherwick Studio
Lead Architect: Thomas Heatherwick
Project Leader: Michael Lewis
Design Team: Adam Peacock, Adriana Cabello, Ana Diez Lopez, Alberto Dominguez, Andy McConachie, Artur Zakrzewski, Aurelie de Boissieu, Ayumi Konishi, Charlotte McCarthy, Chi Chung, Dimitrije Miletić, Elli Liverakou, Etain Ho, Etienne de Vadder, Gabriel Belli Butler, Ho-ping Hsia, Ian Atkins, Iván Linares Quero, Jacob Neal, Jorge Xavier Mendez-Caceres, Jose Marquez, Kacper Chmielewski, Kanru Liu, Kao Onishi, Katerina Joannides, Ken Sheppard, Laura Barr, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Luis Sacristan, Luke Snow, Mat Cash, Megan Burke, Michael Cheung, Nic Bornman, Nicolas Leguina, Nicolas Ombres, Nilufer Kocabas, Ondrej Tichy, Paalan Lakhani, Paul Brooke, Philipp Nedomlel, Ruby Law, Sayaka Namba, Silena Patsalidou, Silvia Rueda, Steven Ascensao, Takashi Tsurumaki, Ville Saarikoski, Wang Fung Chan, and Yanny Ren
Client: Mori Building Company
Photographers: Kenji Masunaga and Raquel Diniz
