TOKYO

Tokyo's future

Sky City Concept

 

Skyscrapers are the way of the future. Tokyo’s landscape has been adopting these tall buildings starting with the first modern office skyscraper in Japan, the Kasumgaseki Building that was completed in 1968. Building off the rapid population increase in Tokyo and the lack of space, the high-rises became the common optimization of land use. Additionally, the urban sprawl in Tokyo was making transportation a nightmare, having most time lost through commuting and traffic in the streets. More plans were designed to attempt to solve the congestion problem, reaching new heights and functionality. The Tokyo’s Sky Concept was one of them. [1]

 

In 1989, the Takenaka Corporation conceptualized a hypothetical architectural skyscraper project of their vision for Tokyo’s metropolitan region when Japan was at the height of its economic growth. It would house thousands of residents and workers as well as hold commercial facilities, theaters, shops, and schools. The plan detailed plateaus that contained green space in the center and apartments on the edges. Its goal was to change the landscape to account for the growing population comfortably and for the city to become less dependent on automobiles. The building design envisioned somewhat of a utopia. It was the idea of a centralized group that functioned like separate neighborhoods but connected as a community. [2, 3]

 

However, this innovation came with a plethora of challenges and seemed unrealistic by some critics. There were problems in the ground, location, resources, tools, and the building’s design. Land that could effectively hold a large project like Sky City needed to be stable. However, the loose sandy soil in Tokyo would not be able to support what would become the heaviest structure in Asian. Even if a hole were dug until it hit bedrock, a suitable base, the result would be a needless 800-story basement. To solve this issue in the design, the engineers added thousands of small tubes at the base that would theoretically provide enough friction to grip the earth’s surface adequately. Another problem was the overall proposed location of the project. To fit a building of that magnitude in the population dense areas of Tokyo would have meant condemning 120 city blocks. There would be destruction of residential areas, stores, and historical monuments. Finding a place to relocate all of the residents temporarily was a challenge. The solution proposed to the issue was to live in the building while it was being build. It was speculated that each finished plateau would be inhabitable after completion. [3]

 

There were issues in the amount of resources production would take. Not only would the project be an enormous economic gamble entirely, companies would be working for decades to produce the resources projected for construction. There is also a reliance on technology where the Takenaka Corporation was hoping robotic innovations would advance to the point where the structure would build itself every day, 24 hours a day, until it was completed. As the pillars were built, the ceiling would be pushed up with hydraulics to meet its progress. [3]

 

There were other issues, such as how to create secure layers without the use of many pillars that obstruct the view. The plan had hypothetical ideas for safety such as fire helicopters to detain the fire outbreaks and counter balances to reduce the amount the building would sway. However, the plan for the actual construction of the “sky city” hasn’t scratched the surface. Although it has gained more serious attention then other massive building projects, it still has a ways to go. [3]