Tokyo, Japan
Competition entry 1988
In the late 1980s, a competition was held for a new conference centre, the International Forum, in Tokyo city centre, on a site formerly occupied by the city hall between Tokyo Station and Yūrakuchō Station. Heckel collaborated with Amir Ofer to propose an elevated podium that would fill the site, its height corresponding with the differing elevations of neighbouring buildings. Two conical structures were designed to grow out of this platform: one in glass with steel beams, the other as a negative, inverted form cut out of the podiums’ mass. A serpentine gallery twines around them, connecting both cones and providing a floating promenade. The result is a building design with a powerful twisting, dynamic; a struggle of opposing forces, frozen as architecture. Unfortunately, the design remained frozen at the model stage as well when the jury decided to opt instead for a somewhat more conventional design by Rafael Viñoly, which was completed in 1997. p (fh)
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