The Ginza skyline in Tokyo has just welcomed a towering new addition: the Takagi building, a sustainable medium-high-rise edifice. Constructed primarily from Tama timber, this 56-metre-tall tower is now Japan's tallest wooden building.
Reborn from the much-missed Aruya Photo Studio Building that closed in 2015, the Takagi building is a diverse property. There will be eateries on the basement and ground floors, retail on the second, office tenants from the third to the eighth, more restaurants from the ninth to the tenth, and a sauna facility occupying the eleventh to the twelfth floors and the rooftop. These venues will open from September 2023.
The architectural highlight of the building is the wooden portion from the ninth to the twelfth floors. Designed by Tetsuo Yamaji, the building's unique architectural style resembles a wooden box placed atop a building. Yamaji, with a career including a role as senior engineer at Kengo Kuma and Associates, has continually championed woodification in architecture.
The Takagi building represents a significant leap towards Japan's goal of decarbonisation, a shift embodied by the 2021 revised law promoting the use of timber in construction. Hidekuni Takagi, CEO of Takagi Building Co, hopes the building will function as a place of gathering and communication – a place that, if laid sideways, would resemble a shopping street.
7-3-6 Ginza, Chuo (three minutes from Ginza Station on foot).
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