Feature — 2026.09.01

Ten Defining Works of Contemporary Tokyo Architecture

Ten Contemporary Icons of Tokyo

Photo: Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — Tokyo International Forum

A ship of glass, an undulating wall, a tower reaching into the sky. Ten buildings that have shaped Tokyo since the 1990s, traced alongside the city's transformation.

01Beginning with great public spaces

Two vast public buildings symbolise Tokyo in the 1990s: Kenzo Tange's Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Nishi-Shinjuku, and Rafael Viñoly's Tokyo International Forum, chosen in an international competition. The former created an emblem of government in its high-rise twin towers; the latter, a vast space of glass and steel, created an urban lobby through which anyone may pass.

02Redevelopment, and summits opened to all

In 2003, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower placed an art museum and an observation deck on its top floors, opening the summit of a skyscraper to the public. The large-scale redevelopments that followed, from Toranomon Hills to Shibuya Scramble Square and Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower, all incorporate plazas at their feet and viewing spaces in the sky as gifts to the city.

03When form itself becomes the message

Kisho Kurokawa's National Art Center, Tokyo lent a soft expression to Roppongi with its undulating glass façade. The cocoon-like Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower; Tokyo Skytree, whose cross-section shifts from triangle to circle. Contemporary Tokyo architecture has produced landmarks whose very forms are etched into the city's memory.

Facts about the buildings mentioned in this article are based on the sources cited on each building page (Wikipedia, Wikidata, official websites, etc.).This description has been translated from the Japanese original.