Omote Sando Hills
(9 votes, average: 3.89 out of 5)
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Location:
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4-12-10 Jingumae
Shibuya-ku
Tokyo
Japan
coordinates:
35.6671982 139.7089844
Building names(s): Omote Sando Hills
Architect/Designer: Tadao Ando
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Other Information:
Completion date: 2006
Function: retail
getting there: Harakuju Station / Omotesando Stationwebsite: www.omotesandohills.com
Last modified: 29 June, 2011 | Suggested By LT
Ando’s Omotesando Hills has been much criticised – in part for turning its back on the Avenue and creating what its own developers describe as a ‘second Omotesando’ within its interior….
Inside, the mall descends several stories beneath ground, but maintains a fair amount of daylight from a glazed roof over the triangular atrium. The strongest aspect of the design is the spiral arrangement of the floors. The stores along the Omotesando Avenue edge of the mall follow the gradual slope of that street, rising by half a story over the length of the mall; those on the opposite side of the triangle follow an opposite slope, so that as you walk around the triangle you have descended (or climbed) one story. So if you start at the top you can wander around the whole center without using an escalator.
The circulation path for visitors with sloping walkways remind me of Wright’s 1959
Guggenheim in NY. It seems appropriate in today’s “shopping mall” society.
World-renowned architect Tadao Ando has managed to squeeze a multistory shopping centre and nearly 40 apartments onto this long slither of land on Omotesando. The result is a retail experience as far from regular shopping mall as you can possibly imagine – think gently sloping walkways, tinkling ambient music, the daintiest shops you’ve ever seen and a (well dressed) mob scene every weekend…. The restaurants are generally packed, but you can always have a quick choko of sake on the Hasegawa Sake shop, or a tasty bean cake in Toraya Cafe, one of Japan’s oldest confectioners.