Aoyama 346

In A three-story office and retail complex in the Minami Aoyama area of Tokyo, Aoyama 346 is an interplay of multiple green triangles, which articulate the liminal spaces that intermediate between the interior and the exterior of the building. The design is also a response to the client’s request to create “an urban oasis” in the very heart of the city.

The project sits on a hilly, “flagpole” 750-square meter site that is cornered by streets to the west, east, and north—the last one of which is a private driveway that is integrated into the overall design. The design primarily exploits these site conditions by referencing the geometry of triangles that variegate in their materiality, hue, and density as they progress from the exterior into the interior. A triangular, two-story void features potted plants that hang from above, folding in greenery into the building and offering visual connection with the adjacent main street through its glass curtain wall.

Retail and restaurant spaces are punctured by semi-open triangular balconies around the building’s corners. A triangular bridge connects the two zones of the complex, from which exposed beams intersect on the exterior to juxtapose the building with the landscape elements. In particular, the linear arrangement of mirror stainless steel, LED light, flexible board, and glass in the skylight hall showcases an infinite interplay of angular forms, where sunlight pours through the top light and the vertical slit and bounces off among the striated, reflective materials. These elements, together with the surrounding landscape, are projected onto the lustrous tiles on the facade and the glass curtain walls, as well as the mirror stainless steel that lines the interior hallway, further reinforcing the idea of interpenetration.

Credit Information
Architecture: Ryuichi Sasaki + Rieko Okumura / SASAKI ARCHITECTURE
Architecture Team:Ryuichi Sasaki, Rieko Okumura, Kiyoshi Iwabuchi, Miwa Takeuchi, Mieko Watanabe, Anna Kwapień, Mikio Sasaki
Landscape Design: Takeshi Matsuo + Takeshi Mita /PLAT design
Graphic Design: Ryuichi Nambu /Nambu Design + Yoshinari Takahashi
Lighting Design: Kazuhiro Kawamura/ sola associates
Structure Engineering: OZ.An + Rhythm Design
Mechanical & Electrical Engineering: Yuko Sakurai / Hezeraf
Facade Engineering: STANDARD
CG: STACK STUDIO + SASAKI ARCHITECTURE
Contractor: SHIN
PM: N ASSET TOKYO
Client: KIKUMOTO