PROJECT: Utopian Tokyo

Tokyo Japan 2013

The Japanese Metabolism had a big impact on the architecture and urban planning around the world, which has been revisited and become inspiration for many. In the last years the technological advance of parametric design, scripting and other computational tools, as well as the tendency to move towards more sustainable cities and architecture, brought ideas and concepts, which seemed to be utopias, to reality and they started to be more considered and frequently applied in our days. As a result of the fast growing cities nowadays, which are normally following old and obsolete principles, there is the urge to create new systems, principles considering the growing population and metropolis, and the Metabolism presented us interesting fundamentals which can be taken further.

We explored these concepts in a tower in Tokyo, in which a cell is generated based on the Tokyo symbol geometry. The cells will attach to a circular shape main core where the vertical circulation takes place.

The composition of the cells can vary according to the adjacent cells, resulting in a spontaneous and continuous transformation of the overall organism of the tower. The flexibility of adding or removing capsules is an adaptive process for different needs or changes in our ways of life. This is possible through a system of rails integrated into the tower along which robots can move and operate the alteration of the cells.

The multi functional program, fast and efficient circulation, turn it into a vertical city. The program includes residential, offices, exhibitions, auditoriums, gardens, etc. The spherical shape of the cell provides a wide view from the interiors towards the city. The aim is to generate a symbiosis between the activities inside the cells and the city, as a single organism.