JAHN-Designed Japan Post Tower to Open in Tokyo

Tokyo has a new skyscraper: the Japan Post Tower, a 38-story high-rise building designed by Helmut Jahn's Chicago firm in collaboration with Mitsubishi Jishu Sekkei, will hold its official grand opening for all commercial space Friday, March 21, 2013.

The high-rise corporate headquarters was rebuilt on the site next to the historic Tokyo Station. The new tower will house the Tokyo Central Post Office, an academic and cultural museum, commercial facility KITTE, a retail galleria of nearly one hundred shops and restaurants, state-of-the-art business offices, and more.

Project Description from JAHN:

Commercial space will include meeting halls, conference spaces of up to 600m², meeting rooms and will accommodate a variety of international conferences, business seminars, new product events and others. TokyoCityi, a tourist and business information center, will be located within, providing tourist guidance, ticketing, café and performance spaces.

The business complex is located in the heart of the Marunouchi district, Tokyo's major commercial district. At a ceremony marking the reopening, Japan Post Network President Akira Nagatomi said he "is confident that customers will find it more convenient to visit the new post office, [which is] connected to Tokyo Station." All major transportation is conveniently located with easy underground access from the building.

The strong sculptural design incorporates the preservation of the original building accompanied by a new folded origami façade. Sustainable systems include an advanced high performance building envelope with integrated passive and active systems including a triple-glazed ventilated cavity wall that reduces heat gain in warm seasons and heat loss in cooler seasons.

Natural light is consistent throughout each space with the use of floor to ceiling glass reducing the costs associated with artificial lighting and increasing user comfort. The building is equipped with ventilated operable skylight panels, heat recovery systems incorporating cooling towers, roof top garden and solar paneling systems.

Francisco Gonzalez-Pulido, president at JAHN, states, “Japan Post Tower is about the parallelism of two prominent forces in Japanese culture; tradition and innovation. The building envelope sustains an ecological model firstly by programmatically reinventing and reusing the existing podium and secondly by the use of a sophisticated skin that reduces significantly its carbon footprint. The ever-changing nature of the 'origami' skin at its North Face has quietly redefined the character of the north Plaza in the heart of the Marunouchi district."