The icon of Japanese metabolic architecture and one of the city’s most distinctive buildings, the Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center, designed by renowned architect Kenzo Tange in 1967 and symbolizing Japan’s rapid post-war economic growth, has been the subject of a conservation and restoration process by TAISEI DESIGN Planners Architects & Engineers.

The building is a landmark of Japanese metabolism (more successful than the ill-fated Nakagin Capsule Tower by another well-known metabolist, Kisho Kurokawa) and one of Kenzo Tange's masterpieces. A piece visible from the high-speed train tracks heading south from Tokyo and included in brilliant compilations such as Rem Koolhaas's book "Project Japan".

A landmark tower with a corner location near an elevated highway and high-speed rail system in the dense centrality of Ginza, one of the most expensive areas in Japan. The office floors connect to the central core like the branches of a tree to its trunk.

The aim of the project to conserve and rehabilitate Kenzo Tange's Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Centre by TAISEI was to identify the areas that were most visibly in need of such intervention and those that needed more conservation and to record the history of each one before restoring it, so that metabolic architecture as we know it can be passed on to future generations.

The building, which has been preserved and rehabilitated on several occasions, underwent renovation of its exterior walls in 1933 and repair of the interior and exterior facilities in 1999. This time, the intervention has consisted mainly of structural and functional reinforcement, encompassing the general rehabilitation of the building and extending the building’s useful life.

The project consisted of a modernization of the structural system to maximise the effect of reinforcements and increase seismic resistance through various solutions, such as the placement of carbon plates on the walls of the cylindrical core from the inside, or the installation of thin steel plates on the lower floors as shear reinforcement, achieving an increase in resistance while maintaining the original geometry of the building and the functionality of its different spaces, transforming them as little as possible.

Kenzo Tange's Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center, renovated by TAISEI. Bird's-eye view. Photograph by  Naoki Kumagai Photo Office, Inc.

Kenzo Tange's Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center, renovated by TAISEI. Bird's-eye view. Photograph by  Naoki Kumagai Photo Office, Inc.

Project description by TAISEI

This project involved preserving and restoring a modernist building built in 1967 in Ginza, Tokyo, known as an example of Metabolism architecture. This building is a distinctive work by Kenzo Tange, one of Japan's most celebrated architects, who devised a creative new form for a small site located in a place that symbolizes Japan's post-war period of rapid economic growth. The cylindrical core at the center of the building houses vertical circulation routes such as stairs, elevators, and piping. The office spaces protrude outwards from the core, giving it a distinctive appearance.

The paintwork of the exterior walls was renovated in 1993, and the interior facilities and the exterior were renovated in 1999. This time, structural and functional reinforcement and an overall renovation were carried out to extend the building's lifespan for another several decades.

In particular, given the unique structural system, seismic retrofitting was planned to maximize the reinforcement effect while minimizing the space required by identifying the building's weak points through seismic response analysis. Carbon fiber sheets were attached to the cylindrical core wall legs (around the first floor) from the inside as bending reinforcement and thin steel plates were installed as shear reinforcement for the lower floors (first to fifth floors.) This allowed for a significant increase in earthquake resistance while maintaining the building's original form and also ensuring the usability of the small spaces.

Kenzo Tange's Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center, renovated by TAISEI. Northeast side. Photograph by Naoki Kumagai Photo Office, Inc.
Kenzo Tange's Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center, renovated by TAISEI. Northeast side. Photograph by Naoki Kumagai Photo Office, Inc.

As for the exterior, we conducted paint inspections on the walls inside and outside the cylinder to reproduce the original colors at the time of construction. We checked the paint history of the inspection points and compared the colors with photographs from the construction period to identify the colors.

In addition, the underside of the eaves and the cylindrical shape were lit up, and LED lighting was introduced in the interior. This transformed the building's appearance at night and emphasized its presence as a local landmark, day and night.

For the interior and facilities, we focused on reflecting the needs of today's users. Specifically, we enhanced security, implemented business continuity planning (BCP) measures, ensured barrier-free access, and added new shared spaces and pilots. As a result, more comfortable and user-friendly working environments have been achieved.

The project's most significant focus was identifying the areas that needed renovation and those that needed preservation and recording each area's history before restoring it. This metabolism architecture will be passed on to the next generation while adding new functions and value.

More information

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Architects
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Original Design In 1967.-  TANGE ASSOCIATES. Lead architect.- KENZO TANGE.
Renovation Design.- TAISEI DESIGN Planner Architects & Engineers.

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Collaborators
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Structural Engineer.- Tashiro Fujimura,Yuko Fukuta, Fumihiko Nakao.
Mep Engineer.- Shinsuke Takeuchi,Takaaki Kagami, Shinichi Kouda.
Interior Design.- Seigo Ito.
Planning History Supervision.- Natsuko Sugie, Ryo Tanaka.
Renovation Supervision.- PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND SOLUTIONS LTD.
Renovation Structural Supervision.- KOBORI RESEACH COMPLEX INC.

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Client
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Shizuoka Broadcasting System Co., Ltd.

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Contractor
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Contractor In 1967.- Taisei Corporation.
Contractor renovation.-  Taisei Corporation.

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Dates
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Renovation.- 2022.
Original project.- 1967.

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Location
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8 Chome-3-7 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo, 104-0061, Japan. 

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Photography
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Naoki Kumagai Photo Office, Inc., Taisei Corporation.

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Kenzo Tange (1913-2005). He was born in the small city of Imabari, Shikoku Island, Japan in 1913. Although becoming an architect was beyond his wildest dreams as a boy, it was Le Corbusier’s work that stirred his imagination so that in 1935, he became a student in the Architecture Department of Tokyo University. In 1946, he became an assistant professor at Tokyo University and organized the Tange Laboratory. His students included Fumihiko Maki, Koji Kamiya, Arata Isozaki, Kisho Kurokawa, and Taneo Oki.

Tange was in charge of the reconstruction of Hiroshima after World War II. The Hiroshima Peace Center and Park begun in 1946 made the city symbolic of the human longing for peace. Architecturally, the Peace Center shows a deep understanding of traditional culture while at the same time is a signpost in the search for a modern style in Japan.

Tange research and interest in urban planning extended throughout his career. His doctorate, completed in 1959, was titled, "Spatial Structure in a Large City," an interpretation of urban structure based on people's movements commuting to and from work. His "Plan for Tokyo 1960" was the Tange Team's logical response to these problems, giving thought to the nature of the urban structure that would permit growth and change. His Tokyo Plan received enormous attention worldwide, for its new concepts of extending the growth of the city out over the bay, using bridges, man-made islands, floating parking and mega structures. Other urban design and planning projects were begun in 1967 for the Fiera District of Bologna, Italy, and a new town with residences for 60,000 in Catania, Italy.

For his Tokyo Cathedral of Saint Mary, he visited several medieval Gothic examples. "After experiencing their heaven-aspiring grandeur and ineffably mystical spaces," he says, "I began to imagine new spaces, and wanted to create them by means of modern technology."

Yamanishi Broadcasting and Press Center (1966) in Kofu, Japan uses many of Tange's new theories—cylinders house staircases, elevators, air conditioning and electrical equipment systems. The horizontal spaces connecting them are likened to the buildings along a street. Some plots are vacant and others are occupied. An important aspect was the expansion potential of the complex. Open spaces between floors, which now serve as terraces and roof gardens, could be enclosed when needed.

In 1987 he won the Pritzker Prize, and he revealed his plans for the new Tokyo City Hall Complex. Since built, the complex comprises an assembly hall, a civic plaza, a park, and two tower buildings. The Akasaka Prince Hotel (1982) in Tokyo has become an important landmark. Others include the Sogetsu Center (1957), the Hanae Mori Building (1979), the Hyogo Prefecture Museum of History (1982), the Ehime Prefecture Culture Center (1985), the Toin School (1986) in Yokohama,—and new projects that are still in the design stage, such as the Yokohama Museum of Art, and the Tokyo Headquarters of the United Nations University.

Tange's only completed project in the United States, to date, is his expansion of the Minneapolis Art Museum, originally designed in 1911 by McKim Mead & White in the neoclassic style. Completed in 1975, the expansion, almost doubling the size of the original 120,000-square-foot structure, was accomplished with large symmetrical wings. Other works outside of Japan include major buildings in Singapore: the Overseas Union Bank, the GB Building, the Telecommunications Centre, and the Nanyang Technological Institute.

In all of his projects, there is a recurrent theme that Tange has verbalized, "Architecture must have something that appeals to the human heart, but even then, basic forms, spaces and appearances must be logical. Creative work is expressed in our time as a union of technology and humanity. The role of tradition is that of a catalyst, which furthers a chemical reaction but is no longer detectable in the result. Tradition can, to be sure, participate in a creation, but it can no longer be creative itself."

In addition to his architectural practice, Kenzo Tange has been a guest professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a lecturer at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Washington University, Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Universities of Alabama and Toronto.
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TAISEI DESIGN Planners Architects & Engineers is a construction company based in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1873 that has undertaken a number of construction projects amidst social changes such as Japan's modernization, post-war reconstruction, economic growth, and globalization.

Chaired by Yoshiro Aikawa, the company focuses on developing safe, secure, and attractive communities and social infrastructure.

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Published on: February 26, 2025
Cite: "Kenzo Tange's Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center, renovated by TAISEI" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/kenzo-tanges-shizuoka-press-and-broadcasting-center-renovated-taisei> ISSN 1139-6415
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