As I mentioned in my last post I will be writing about Odaiba. Odaiba is an area of Tokyo which is built an artificial island in the Tokyo Bay. The island is connected to the mainland by the rainbow bridge of which there is a picture in my first post. The style of the buildings in the area is definitely futuristic, it was developed in the 1990′s as a major commercial, residential and leisure area. I took the monorail that goes to Odaiba and also links to Haneda Airport. Just as you come off the monorail the first thing you see is the Tokyo TV building.
The Tokyo TV building
The building features a large sphere build near the top of the building as well as a center area made up of pillars and sky bridges linking both halves of the building. Again I love the combination of glass and metal, it is simply colored and just looks so futuristic. As you walk around Odaiba you see many other examples of futuristic architecture.
A pair of futuristic buildings
The gigantic building on the left has a hole in the middle of it with at the bottom a part of the building that resembles a large satellite dish which is interesting as the japanese text on the building reads “telecom center”. It is an a creative way to show the purpose of the building by it evoking a piece of telecommunication equipment. The futuristic feel does not only extend to the building but also to the transport infrastructure.
The Tokyo Teleport pedestrian bridge
The picture above shows a suspention bridge which allows pedestrians to cross the large roadway below it. The bridge even has escalators to get up onto it. It is really a crazy looking sight with the single large pilar which sits as if it was going to tip over. When in such surrounding it is easy to let your imagination go and just be inspired. Each building I have shown was relatively simple yet had details that made them very interesting. I like subtle little details that make you look at something twice. Subtility to me is very important in a design, be it a slight splash of color or an interesting pattern used effectively. These things really make a design pop. In my next post about Tokyo I will write about an area called Akihabara. An area that is quite eclectic, strange and so very interesting.
