The Tokyo International Forum
Inside the Tokyo International Forum’s Glass Hall
I don’t know the first thing about architecture, so all I can offer is a layman’s perspective: the Tokyo International Forum is a seriously cool building. In this blog I have praised many of the wonders of Tokyo, but one area where the city generally comes up short is its buildings: the vast majority were built quickly after World War II to fulfill basic functional needs (many have been replaced since then, and the city has grown as well, but the newer buildings are often just as unremarkable). Most of the architecture is drab and dull, so snazzy structures like the Forum building really stand out. The Forum serves as an exhibition hall and a conference center. It was completed in 1996, and it’s located on the north side of the JR Yurakucho station.
Looking up at the roof of the Tokyo International Forum’s Glass Hall
Here are some observations made by Ivor Richards – someone who does know something about architecture – concerning the Forum and its architect Rafael Vinoly:
Vinoly has likened the Glass Hall to nineteenth-century public spaces; indeed like arcades: both the Milan Galleria and the Crystal Palace are recalled in this immense, awesome space with its monumental staircases and shimmering bridges and ramps, that are almost Piranesian in scale.
The Plaza itself recalls the scale of other European models like the Piazza Navona in Rome, and the whole ensemble has been compared to the symbolic presence of the Sydney Opera House, or to the grandeur of the Parisian Eiffel Tower.
The Forum’s Glass Hall and Canopy are particularly noteworthy:
…The theater lobbies overlook the plaza which serves as civic space and visually filters into the Glass Hall, a large glass enclosure with a dramatic 750-foot-long truss that hovers above. At night, light reflects off the surface of the ribs and transforms the structure into a monolithic floating light source, illuminating the Glass Hall and profiling it in the skyline…The 35 x 16-foot Yurakucho Canopy, the world’s largest free-standing glass structure, shelters a staircase leading to an underground rail station and forms a key entrance to the complex. The Glass Hall, one of the most daring structures ever built in Japan, consists of two intersecting glass and steel ellipses, which enclose a vast central lobby and unite the elements of the complex. This structure is composed of seven stories above ground and three below. The 197-foot-high laminated glass curtain wall was designed to be transparent, visually connecting the theaters and plaza to the conference center.
- Rafael Viñoly Architects – Tokyo International Forum: The architect’s web site has lots of cool pictures of the Forum
- Tokyo International Forum – English site: information on events at the Forum
