Introduction

The theme in the task was high-rise building, with focus in public indoor and outdoor spaces. The purpose was to develop an urban design for the south side of Shibuya railway station. The present analysis and conceptual development tasks were scheduled for two weeks and taken place in 2-3 students' groups. Ten students of the course (out of 30) also participated a workshop in Japan for two days on the 27 th – 28 th October 2004. The workshop was arranged with two local architecture schools in Tokyo , Keio University (Jun Matsumoto, Shigeru Ban studio) and the University of Tokyo (Yamashiro Satoru, prof. Namba's studio). We are also grateful for Kone Lifts Ltd for sponsor support and information.

The Teaching Personel

professor, architect Trevor Harris, SAFA/RIBA

architect Antti Ahlava, SAFA

architect Veikko Mäkipaja, SAFA

architect Kirsti Rantanen, SAFA

architect Hannu Tikka, SAFA

The site

The area to be designed in Shibuya is presently a railroad. New open land will be created by moving the existing railroad underground. Thus the area suitable for new building is a very narrow, long, linear space.

Shibuya is the centre of fashion and rich youngsters of Tokyo. Near to the Shibuya station there are already some high-rise buildings, the highest of them raising to 240 meters. Shibuya is intense also in the dark, thanks to the bright advertisement screens. North to the site there is a wide street called Meiji-dori and the Shibuya station. On the east side of the place there is a narrow river called Shibuya river.

JR Yamanote-line (the circular metro line of Tokyo ) and Tokyu-Toyoko line (turning west) are crossing by the site. Tokyu-Toyoko line will be placed underground and we will use the liberated space for our purposes. For the moment, it appears that the area is approximately 13x700 m with a few 20-40 m dimensioned wider places.

Background Material

– a map of the preliminary borders of the site 1:5000

– a Japanese map of the site 1:1500

– literature

– internet

– a section for Urban Design course books in The library of the Department of architecture. We also added a Kone Ltd lift information box there.

Program

The tasks were expected to have mixtures of different types of functions within the towers and in their basements: housing, offices, public and private services. Interests were also in hearing the student's well-argued ideas about the program and the possible future activities.

It was recommended that the students use imaginatively lifts, escalators and other devices such as conveyors for human transportation. The students were also encouraged to develop innovative solutions concerning these devices of movement: the possibilities created by curving escalators, double-decker lifts, sliding carpets and tilted or rolling lifts etc.

One interesting aspect regarding high rise buildings and lifts is the design of public indoor spaces, such as lobbies. Not all buildings had to be high-rise constructions. The public and semipublic domain is remarkable especially with office buildings, hotels and shopping centers.

Analysis

The tasks in the analysis stage were twofold for each group:

1) to select a topic both from the analysis topic list
2) to select a topic from the typological study list

The analysis work helped us collect crucial information about the site. Through the typological study students could already start thinking about the architectural solutions for the site. It was possible to use the maps of the site, but this was not obligatory: typological studies could also remain entirely conceptual.

Analysis topics:

1) the Shibuya area: activities and locations

2) the physical and topographical Shibuya area

3) the ecological Shibuya area, including geography

4) high-rise building in Tokyo

5) feng shui and high-rise building in Japanese cities

6) security regulations in high-rise buildings, especially concerning fire regulations and lifts

7) contemporary Japanese notions on plazas, squares and other public outdoor spaces

8) planning regulations in Tokyo and Shibuya

9) traffic by our site

10) contemporary high-rise building internationally

12) sublime aesthetics in architecture

13) utopias in contemporary architecture

14) utopias in the history of architecture

15) social utopias and architecture

16) the history of Manhattan skyscrapers

17) wind performance of high-rise buildings

18) construction techniques for high-rise towers

19) utopic office

20) utopic housing

21) utopic mixtures of functions

Typological study topics:

1) public gardens in the air

2) private courtyards in a skyscraper

3) a folded and stacked two-storey high tube conglomerate forming a high-rise building

4) leaning towers

5) christmas tree tower

6) cars by the apartment doors

7) sports tower

8) escalator tower without lifts

9) hollow tower

10) private lifts tower

11) outdoor lifts tower

12) towers leaning to each other

13) upside down towers: becoming wider upwards

14) route tower

15) tower + 'parasite' detached houses on it

16) skeleton tower with freeform 'chunks' within

17) spatial collage tower

18) a group of towers with traffic bridges on several levels

19) ziggurat city

20) high-rise buildings which allow nonpermanent uses and unprogrammed spaces

21) combining high-rises with lower building cleverly

Material to be produced and presentation

Documents which are able to communicate the analysis information and present the students' typological ideas.

The material had to be such to be able to show with a data projector. Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Powerpoint are recommended programs. Recommended fonts: Arial, Helvetica, Monaco and Verdana. Large files were instructed to be divided into smaller parts if the size exceeds 60 Mt. Good proportions for a slide are 94 dpi, 28,5 x 21,5 cm. The work must also be brought on a CD disc. We would also like to have your material printed in A3 format. These drawings will then be taken to the workshop in Tokyo and shown to our Japanese friends.

There was also an exhibition of the final projects at the end of the autumn term.