The Okura Hotel Tokyo / TAISEI DESIGN Planners Architects & Engineers
The Okura Hotel Tokyo / TAISEI DESIGN Planners Architects & Engineers
Okura Legacy─Inheritance of creative endeavors – Hotel Okura Tokyo opened in 1962 to provide a world-class hotel unique to Japan, instead of an imitation of overseas hotels. Following this philosophy, it was reborn as The Okura Tokyo in September 2019, with enhanced safety and comfort to meet modern needs. With the development concept of “Tradition and Innovation,” we strived to create a new Okura legacy as a continuation of its history of the past 50 years while offering new value for the coming 50 years.
Layout plan/Landscape – The Okura Tokyo’s new feature, The Okura Square front plaza, is surrounded by three buildings. The hexagonal island in the middle of the water feature is located at the intersection of axis lines that extend to the lobbies of the two hotel buildings, creating a close relationship between the lobbies and the plaza. The new Okura lobby now offers a view of the soothing water and the Okura Museum of Art. About half of the site(1.3ha) is open to the public as a green area and plaza, contributing to the improvement of the local environment. The Okura Garden on the north side of the site skillfully utilizes the topography with a 19m elevation difference. On the east side of the site, a 2,500m² city planning park was developed by using the Minato-ku Park City Development System.
Reconstruction of the previous main lobby – In order to recreate the comfortable space of the previous main lobby, which was much-loved and admired by people from all over the world, underlying numeric data was collected by a survey of the site before demolition. Carefully selected results from a measurement survey, comparison with photos taken right after its completion, a material survey, a light environment survey, and a sound environment survey were reflected in the design of the new lobby. In addition to recreating the lobby, the traditional ornaments and designs are collected, reused, and reproduced through the handiwork of craftsmen, and also redesigned in a modern way to inherit an “elegant, not flamboyant, world view”.
Structural system – The braced tube structural system that binds multiple layers was employed to minimize seismic damage to the high-quality finishing materials in the guest rooms. The story drift angle was reduced by increasing horizontal rigidity. The column sections on the outer frame of the guestrooms were also reduced to provide a better view. In order to faithfully reproduce the previous main lobby, square columns with outer dimensions of 800mm were recreated by using ultra-high strength CFT columns for the 5th-floor lobby of The Prestige Tower, which supports massive column axial force from the upper stories.
