Client: Nippon Television City Corporation

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Completion date: 2018

Project Team

Artist

KAZ SHIRANE

KAZ SHIRANE Studio

Other

Shuta Takagi

Shuta Takagi Office

Overview

The idea of this ambiguous space is based on the common ground between interior design and art as a permanent installation.

The project was launched as the second full-scale reconstruction project commemorating the 60th anniversary of Tokyo Tower; I have transformed the interior space of its circular observation deck, located at the height of 250 meters, is a very small space, with floor space of about 100㎡ into a “prismirrored space”, that is original idea by covering the whole space with polyhedron mirrors.
The fundamental design concept is “a space created with the visitors and the scenery of TOKYO”.

Goals

The design of the space changes with every moment by the movement of the visitors and the scenery of Tokyo. In other words, the same design will never appear twice in this space. From an artistic perspective, people can see a landscape of Tokyo that is constantly changing towards the future, continuously reflected in a space whose ceiling is fully covered with mirrors.

On the other hand, regarding of Tokyo, It is quite hard to conceptualize Tokyo in one word. The same could be said of human existence. We may be seeing the rise of the time-pushed person of today who, in an attempt to simplify the flood of information that has spread with the growth of the Internet, surrenders to a one-sided view of things with no careful consideration.
By contrasting oneself reflected on the multifaceted mirror from different angles with the fluid living organism called Tokyo, this space enables a visitor to view his/her “true self” in the mirror for the first time. Even while letting people genuinely enjoy the space, my secret hope is for this work to create a place to reveal one’s true self, and to view our times more critically.

Process

As the design process, I worked with a programmer to create software which can control the geometry. On the other hand, The circular observation deck, located on Tokyo tower 250 meters above the ground, is a very small space, with floor space of about 100㎡. Nevertheless, the design faced several difficulties during the construction process.
Using 3D space scanning and digital fabrication, I created a virtual space on the computer to control all components in the space with the fabricator. About 1000 triangle mirrors are used in total.

Additional Information

In consideration of a third reconstruction that might be needed decades from now, and taking into account the idea of sustainability, I have established a set of rules for the triangle geometry and applied them to a design that can be reconstructed in the future. This acts just like the genes of living beings. The geometry can be deformed into various shapes if the conditions are right, suggesting the possibility of recycling by different designers in the future