"Tokyo Midtown" opened on March 30. All the world in recently enthusing about how "Roppongi is changing" and "an area for adults is emerging", which can probably be interpreted as a welcome sign of another bubble of the Japanese economy. I only got to look at the aspect of public art, so I can't say much about shops and restaurants, and of course the whole office part of the complex. Architecturally I think "21_21 Design Sight" is not a bad construction. The building covered by an iron roof, which was obviously inspired by Issey Miyake’s "one piece of cloth" philosophy, lets in more natural light than one would expect from a semibasement space. Considering the belly flop of "Omotesando Hills", Ando Tadao certainly produces better results with museums than with commercial architecture. Adjacent to the Midtown premises is the office of Isozaki Arata, which looks a bit like an innuendo against Isozaki, Ando’s rival in the "Tokyo Olympics vs. Fukuoka Olympics" fight.
Anyway, it’s really horrible what they're doing to Roppongi. First they caused severe damage with "Roppongi Hills", then they gave it an additional blow with "The National Art Center, Tokyo", followed by the finishing stroke of "Midtown". I'm not talking about the new "Art Triangle Roppongi" made up of Mori Art Museum, National Art Center and Suntory Museum of Art. I do have my thoughts about this trio, but what I want to highlight here are the exterior views of these constructions. A number of huge buildings withour any unified formal beauty are being arbitrarily erected, most probably without any consideration of their harmonic interaction with their direct environment. If there were several hundred highrise buildings like in Manhattan for example, there might be some kind of scenic ecosystem emerging automatically, but we surey can't expect or even desire this to happen in Tokyo in the immediate future.
My office/apartment is on Toriizaka in Roppongi 5-chome, near the International House of Japan. You might remember the fuss about the demolition of the House’s old wing several years ago. The International House was formerly a mansion of a feudal lord, became the residence of foreign minister Inoue Kaoru in the early Meiji Period, and in 1887 served as a Kabuki stage on which a performance of Danjuro IX. took place under the eyes of the Emperor. The magnificent garden that is said to be "gathering the legacy of the time between Momoyama and Edo" was laid out in 1930 by Iwasaki Koyata (the 4th president of the Mitsubishi conglomerate), the owner at the time. it is one of the most outstanding green spaces in central Tokyo. The old building designed by Le Corbusier pupil Mayekawa Kunio, Sakakura Junzo, and modern architect Yoshimura Junzo, was completed in 1955.
The fact that Mori Building has come up with large-scale redevelopment plans for the area has been reported in various media. According to an article in the December 23 issue of the weekly "Shukan Diamond", it’s called the "Roppongi 5-chome Project" and involves the erection of "one construction of the size of Roppongi Hills' 'Mori Tower', and two 40-story highrise buildings." I heard from a local resident group that the Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin, which is located right in the middle of the target area, had been opposing vehemently at first, but then gave in. The vast ground of a land owner who got mired in debt after the burst of the bubble economy was resold to Mori Building, and since the funds for rebuiding the old wing of the aforementioned International House had to be covered by selling air rights to Mori Building, the outer moat was eventually filled in. One reason for the green light to go ahead with this was reportedly the increasing desire to eliminate the bad influence of the teeming sex trade shops and recurring criminality in the Roppongi neighborhood on the students of the Toyo Eiwa school, which enjoys the reputation of a school for "daughters from good homes". The old building of the Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin, by the way, was designed by William Merrell Vories, who is responsible for a large number of Western-style buildings in Japan. The later renovation was done by W.M. Vories & Company Architects Ichiryusha.
I suppose there is no way to stop urban redevelopment by huge companies as we have recently seen it in the Marunouchi district, Ginza, Shiodome or Roppongi. It’s a rail that has been carefully laid in teamwork by government, bureaucracy and industry since the wave of privatizations under prime minister Nakasone in the 1980s. All I'm asking is, can't you just do something about the buildings' exterior views?!" A look at the present state of Roppongi doesn't give me much hope. The last-minute approval of the demolition of the International House’s old wing came due to a "Requests concerning the preservation of the International House of Japan" (Japanese only) issued by the Architectural Institute of Japan. The theoretical rationale behind the "requests" was the "harmony between modern(ist) architecture and the Japanese-style garden", which in my view is a proper argument. However, the ears of politicians, government officials and developers seem to be deaf to it, and there aren't many good architects that are skilled enough to convince them.
I'd like to emphasize that I'm not talking about leaving the green of Roppongi where it belongs. It’s also not about not touching nice old buildings (which is not impossible but surely difficult). For example, in the time before "Tokyo Midtown", right in front of "21_21" was once Tokyo’s oldest soul bar, "George’s". It was a shady kind of place where friends of soulful music and dangerous-looking hoodlum sort of fellows used to hang around every night. The premises of the former Defense Agency, where "Midtown" is now, was temporarily requisitioned by the U.S. forces after the war, and especially after the Vietnam War, Roppongi became mainly an amusement district for American soldiers stationed in Japan. "George’s" was one place that symbolized such historical facts, until it was forced to close down — in a way "killed" by "Midtown" (even though it later reopened at a different location).
Nothing can be done about the "deaths" of such shops, because nothing in life lasts forever. But I wonder if "Hills" and "Midtown" are worthy successors to "George’s" that manage in the same way to reflect aspects of their time, and produce something that remains and weathers the hardships of history. I for one am placing my hope on "21_21" and other cultural facilities.
Ozaki Tetsuya / Editor in chief / REALTOKYO