MVRDV: GYRE OMOTESANDO, TOKYO

Photo courtesy of wakii

ESPAÑOL

Gyre, or swirl, a term often used in oceanography, evokes eddies, currents, vortices . Gyre, designed by Dutch architects MVRDV in Omotesando shopping district, Tokyo, is a multipurpose commercial and retail complex whose volumetry, despite being massive, evokes movement and dynamism through its terraces.

Photo courtesy of kokix

LOCATION

Gyre is one of those glamorous buildings that seem to line up in a fashion parade along the Omotesando groove. Al early the Spiral Building by Fumihiko Maki and the headquarters of the Nursing Association of Japan by Kisho Kurokawa , followed by other important buildings such as Omotesando Hills by Tadao Ando (located in front of the Gyre) and Dior by SANAA (located on the side, and whose white, translucent and almost fragile structure contrasts with the dark massiveness of Gyre).

Important density of buildings created by famous designers congregate in Omotesando

Contrast between the Gyre and SANAA's Dior

It is built on a street corner of Omotesando street and narrow and steep street, the Kyu Shibuya River Promenade, also called Cat Street.

With an area of ​​8979 m2, the building was built between 2006-07 by Takenaka Corporation.

The Gyre during its construction in 2006

See location on Google Maps

CONCEPT

The proposal is based MRDV a set of stacked boxes that rotate around its vertical axis. The Dutch office had already been experimenting with compositions of boxes and public spaces separated from the street level, as in the case of building Sanchinarro Mirador in Madrid.

Primary idea . Image courtesy of MVRDV

The building consists of 3 basements and 6 levels. Each of these 6 floors rotates around the central space, giving the general impression of an eddy, a gyre.

Floors 1-3

Floors 4-6

Sections. Images courtesy of MVRDV.

This rotation generates spaces, which far from being residual are utilized as terraces. This concept allows the architects to confer a certain lightness to the massive volumes that make up the composition.

The facade, ceiling and terraces are made ​​of polyurethane concrete

Photo courtesy of staff note

Photo courtesy of a + n + l + w + o

Some terraces are connected by external stairs that trigger a type of circulation not common in commercial buildings, which rather have an internal circulation that distributed to all stores (another case of trade with external terraces interconnected is the Times I and II in Kyoto).

The terraces are connected by external stairs.

Photo courtesy of Rob't Hart

Photo courtesy of deedeelim

Restaurants located in some of the terraces have good views of the Mall

INTERIOR

The shops are arranged around a large central space that contains the stairs, allowing light to access through a skylight. It is also the structural core of the building.

Photo courtesy of Olly Denton

Known brands such as Chanel, Bulgari, and a shop of the Museum of Modern Art in New York - MoMA, alternating with cafes and restaurants.

MoMA's first store outside the U.S., designed by Richard Gluckman

***

Gyre is not just another commercial buiding that presents itself to the world as a glamorous model, but inside is introverted and lacks communication. MVRDV's proposal is based on movement, includes the pedestrian, involves the urban space into the building and suggests an interior space that is as attractive as the facade. An idea that had already been explored decades ago with Fumihiko Maki´s Spiral Building, a pioneer in Omotesando.

SEE ALSO
- COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS.

• De Beers, Ginza. Jun Matsui.
• Mikimoto Ginza 2 (Toyo Ito)
• Namba Parks, Osaka
• Time's I & II, Kyoto, Japan. (Tadao Ando)

In order to take pictures inside this place I had to buy a small cake.. it was spectacular.

JUN MITSUI: DE BEERS, GINZA

Photo courtesy of David Panevino .

ESPAÑOL

A few meters away from the Mikimoto Ginza 2 , designed by Toyo Ito , lies an unusual building: De Beers (2005-2008), a project by Jun Mitsui for the prestigious company De Beers, specialized in diamonds. The building has an undulating facade, in which its winding curves contrast with the regular horizontal pattern that generates it.

LOCATION

De Beers stands in the shopping district of Ginza, one of the most important commercial areas in the Japanese capital. The building is located on the corner of Maronie St and a perpendicular minor street. In a plot of ​​approximately 340 m2, the building occupies a projected area of ​​4022 m2.

View Location in Google Maps

CONCEPT

Due to its location on a corner, the building highlights its evocative and sensual profile, although given the narrowness of the road and the presence of other neighboring tall buildings, we must stand back to appreciate it in its entirety.

"Bizarre architecture". Photo courtesy of Ballet Lausanne .

The architect said to have been inspired by "the twisting form of light in motion" and the sensual curves of "the female outline". Whatever his inspiration, the truth is that the facade facing the Maronie street is a regular pattern that has been undulated (without being deformed, as Frank Gehry's Dancing House building in Prague) and thus presents a dynamic and agile composition, without losing the character of the grid that generates it.


This curtain wall is composed of stainless steel bars that descend vertically as ribbons, crossed by horizontal tabs. This arrangement allows the reflection of light in a peculiar way, which changes as the hours pass.


To locate the entrance in a subtle but hierarchical way, the steel frame was interrupted to accommodate a white cube.


Towards the minor street the facade is orthogonal. The architect separated the area closer the curved facade from another composition based in elongated ceramic tiles -that somehow reminded me of the Suntory Art Museum's lateral facade- but whose arrangement also suggests a curve.



This façade culminaties on a "V", which houses a two-story mezzanine, a stunning glass roof that faces the street, while water tanks and machinery are located in the rear. This solarium on the top enhances the dramatic form of the building.

Photo courtesy of Manuel a.69

PLANS

Foundation, two basements and Level 1.

Level 2-5

Level 6-9

Levels 10 and 11 and two levels of the roof.

Sections

DETAILS

Photos courtesy of tanakawho

Photo courtesy of tanakawho

Photo courtesy of Justin James

An avant-garde idea or superficial formalism? Or the combination of both? The truth is that recently in the Japanese capital several architects have been experimenting with "skins" or "screens" glass, providing dynamism to otherwise static buildings, from the sober Renzo Piano's proposal in the Maison Hermes to the voluptuous curtain designed by Kisho Kurokawa in the National Arts Centre . What is undeniable is that the De Beers by Jun Mitsui is an ornamental , photogenic, superficial, glitzy and shiny building... the same qualities of the diamonds that are displayed inside.

SEE ALSO
- COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS.

• Mansion Hermes. Renzo Piano
• Mikimoto Ginza 2, Tokyo, Japan. Toyo Ito.
• Namba Parks, Osaka
• 
  

TOYO ITO: MIKIMOTO GINZA 2

ESPAÑOL

Some of the most renown works by Toyo Ito are his commercial buildings in Tokyo where he carried out some experimental concepts in design and construction methods. In this occasion I will comment his building for the company Mikimoto, in the Ginza shopping district. In a future post I will refer to Tod's, an experimental commercial building in Omotesando .

LOCATION

Ginza, literally means "place of silver" and has been a commercial district of Tokyo from the Edo period in the early seventeenth century. Today, Ginza is home to numerous boutiques and fashion stores of the world's most exclusive brands and has a remarkable density of buildings designed by famous architects. Here you can find the Maison Hermes by Renzo Piano the Dior store Kumiko Inui and De Beers store, by Jun Mitsui. Not far from there is the Tokyo International Forum by Rafael Vinoly .

See location on Google Maps

In the corner of Maronie St.and Namiki St. the famous Mikimoto Pearls company installed since 1893 , and after 110 years a new building designed by Toyo Ito was constructed on the same site. It is called Mikimoto Ginza, and this slender building 48 m high, built on an area of 274 m2 was completed in 2005.

CONCEPT

The building of apparent simplicity comprises a prism perforated by a series of irregular windows, like a Swiss cheese, apparently arranged at random. However, since some of these are placed in the corners (where typically would be a column) and as we look closely at the fine finish of the facade, is evident that a much a more sophisticated construction system was used.

The concept is based on the building is held by its facade, leaving the internal spaces column-free.




The shape of the windows is part of an elaborate geometry of triangles and squares, which resemble a fractal composition.

Drawings courtesy of Toyo Ito & Associates Architects

CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM

Because of the design, it was required a strong structure that would allow to place openings freely, but at the same time that would not easily expand when heated. For this reason Ito opted for a mixed system of metal plates and concrete. Steel plates of 1.2 cm were prepared and fixed by a web of studs in order to maintain a uniform thickness of 20 cm, and then concrete was poured between them.

The plates were then transported and assembled on site. It took a total of 330 pieces to build the facade.


Finally, they proceeded to weld the plates and paint them. This process was done by hand and required up to 6 different stages of polishing and painting to ensure a smooth finish that the customer required.

Photos and drawings courtesy of Toyo Ito & Associates Architects

As we approached and see the detail, we were impressed by the quality of the finishing and how finely this large metal facade was polished.

Photo courtesy of Green Scarlet

"Although the skin is built with 12 mm steel plate, when you weld it everything tends to bend. Furthermore, if you don’t do it perfectly, at the end you see the weld joints. To achieve a perfectly flat surface we had to work a lot. We, the engineers, the workers… We, the engineers, the workers… all had to experiment with a lot of different solutions. "

Stefano Mirti, from Domus magazine, asked about the relationship of their work with technology, Ito says,

"Actually, the sense and meaning of technology in my works is changing. In the past the technology was highly visible. It was presented in a visible way. Now it is different. Technology is now something I hide, you have to look for it, you don’t see it, you can't see it. It is an element to be used and exploited in an indirect way. Before, I used to envision an architecture that nobody could touch, impossible to grasp and hold. Now, again, it is different. Now, I want to do an architecture that you can touch and feel. Now I am working on the physical reality, on the object, on the real. This interests me now."

Photos courtesy of Purple Cloud

The tower is basically a rectangular box, and from a distance, resembles the typical skyscraper. However, it is at night when probably it becomes more appealing, when lights of different colors enhance the irregular windows and display the glamorous interior.

Photos courtesy of Green Scarlet

Beautiful photo of the interior stairs, courtesy of Ra Xosi

SEE ALSO
- OTHER WORKS BY TOYO ITO

• Egg of Winds (Tokyo)
• Sendai Mediatheque
• Shinonome Canal Court, Tokyo (with Kengo Kuma and others)
• Tower of Winds (Yokohama)
• Za Koenji Theater

- COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS.

• Namba Parks, Osaka