Japan

+ 20

+ 9

+ 17

+ 10

+ 17

+ 24

+ 24

+ 10

+ 7

+ 12

+ 13

+ 6

+ 13

The Odate Jukai Dome in the Akita Prefecture of Japan was completed by Toyo Ito in June 1997. The project is another example of the architect's impressive canon, making use of cutting edge technology and bringing architecture closer to people. Seemingly floating a few meters above the ground, the dome leaves space for the people to flow in comfortably, while the use of wood is itself a way of bringing nature into architecture while adopting the latest technological advancements.

Designed as a city fragment, not only as a sports stadium, the design by MenoMenoPiu Architects + FHF Architectes is an attractor: innovative and a generator of vitality. Given the name The Twist, their proposal for the Tokyo Olmpic Stadium is expanding in order to better reach users requirements: proximity, diversity, and accessibility. Their conept, unlike other conventional stadiums, is an elliptical spiral which is gradually unrolling and forming. More images and architects’ description after the break.

+ 11

+ 28

The city of Yatsushiro is known in Japan as a home for exemplary architecture - the legacy at least in part of Artpolis, a plan by the government of the Kumamoto Prefecture to seek out a range of talented architects to design cultural buildings in the cities of the region. Though the Artpolis scheme has been running for the past 22 years, perhaps its most successful building was completed back in 1991, with the construction of Toyo Ito's Yatsushiro Municipal Museum.