Tokyo inaugurates Japan’s tallest skyscraper, as tall as the Eiffel Tower

2023-11-24 17:02:36

Japan’s tallest tower was officially inaugurated in Tokyo on Friday. Named Azabudai Hills, it measures 330 meters, as high as the Eiffel Tower. This “city within a city” should accommodate 20,000 office workers and 3,500 residents once fully occupied, according to a press release from the Japanese real estate group Mori Building, which hopes to attract more than 30 million visitors per year.

Japan, however, is far from the heights reached elsewhere in Asia and the Middle East for skyscrapers. One of the reasons is the very high seismic risk in the Japanese archipelago, which requires tall buildings in the country to respect extremely strict standards and, for example, to have a wide base to gain stability. Hence the often massive appearance of Japanese skyscrapers.

Heatherwick Studio has been in charge of designing the Azabudai Hills neighborhood in the Minato district, in the city of Tokyo, Japan. The project arose in 1989 when the developer Mori Building Company began a process of urban regeneration in the area. pic.twitter.com/HeQPR5BLS1

— METALOCUS (@METALOCUS) November 24, 2023

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A record… soon to be surpassed

Azabudai Hills exceeds the height of a skyscraper in Osaka (western Japan) but is not expected to remain the tallest building in the country for long: the Torch Tower and its 390 meters in height should be completed in 2027-2028 in Tokyo. Furthermore, the Japanese capital is also home to one of the tallest structures in the world, the Tokyo SkyTree (an uninhabited 634 meter tower), inaugurated in 2012.

Japan, however, is far from the heights reached elsewhere in Asia and the Middle East for skyscrapers. One of the reasons is the very high seismic risk in the Japanese archipelago, which requires tall buildings in the country to respect extremely strict standards and, for example, to have a wide base to gain stability. Hence the often massive appearance of Japanese skyscrapers.