Aoyama Architecture Tour

TABlog tags along with a group of building-seekers.

In Photo Reports by William Andrews 2009-11-05 print

It was a rather wet and gloomy day but that was not going to deter Robert Day and his small group of architecture enthusiasts. Robert is an Australian architect who lived in Tokyo fifteen years ago but has regularly returned to work. He also runs short and intimate architecture tours in Tokyo, and even goes down to Kyoto to explore the surviving Frank Lloyd Wright buildings.

From Shibuya Station we headed through the backstreets to this Transformer-like building, the Aoyama Technical College, designed by Sei Watanabe. And then this to this stark white building, tall, with funky windows, tucked behind Aoyama Round Theatre

Back on the main road and towards Omotesando junction we passed this impressive new department store.

Opposite there is the Tower House (塔の家) (1966) by Takamitsu Azuma, built on 25 metres square. It is the office of an architect, appropriately enough.

There is a basement floor, but you'd need it on this postage stamp lot.

www.harajuku-church.com

There are church tours every Wednesday at 12:00. Round the corner was this steel girder building, which turned out to be...

A spectacles shop!

On our way to our next destination we passed some designer stores, including the Prada building by Herzog and de Meuron The Cartier store.

Although it sits at an unremarkable junction...

For more on the tours Robert Day organizes and for information on some of the projects he has undertaken in Japan, visit his website.

William Andrews. William Andrews came to Japan in 2004. He first lived in Osaka and worked as a translator for Kansai Art Beat. Arriving in Tokyo in 2008, when he is not exploring art galleries he can often be found in the city's theatres. He works as a translator, editor, copywriter and occasional journalist. He also maintains a (very irregular) blog about Tokyo contemporary theatre: TokyoStages.com » See other writings

Comments

Matthew
2009-11-07

Glad to see TAB still got to cover this, Will! Looks like it was great fun – lots of new sites in there for me.

Matthew
William Andrews
2009-11-08

Hi Matthew, thanks for taking a look. I tagged along for only half a day but still saw several things I didn’t know about. Robert organized a good itinerary that was a real mixture of major buildings, traditional places and obscure things. Interestingly, most of the people in his group were connected with architecture professionally too so everyone was very enthusiastic about trawling the back streets for unusual buildings (in spite of the weather!).
Sally
2009-11-15

Will be in Tokyo Nov. 22 – 24.

Will you be leading any tours during this time?

Thx.
William Andrews
2009-11-16

Hello Sally,

I don’t believe Robert will back so soon to do another tour. But you could keep an eye on his website for the next one.
http://www.rdayarch.com.au/tours.html

Thanks.
Robert Day
2009-11-17

Hi William,

It was a pleasure to have you join us for the Aoyama leg of the Architecture Tour. The highlight of the day for me was Kengo Kuma’s Nezu Museum. The tour was a great success and the group was able to visit many great buildings in Tokyo, Kawagoe and Kyoto, see some Frank Lloyd Wright gems, spend a day with Japanese Architects and enjoy some cultural activities that the average tourist might not. A real Architect’s delight.

At the moment we have some interest in a mid-April 2010 Architecture Tour, so I hope that you might be able to join us again.

Regards,
Robert Day

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