is a , 50-story educational facility located in the
Nishi-Shinjuku
is a skyscraper business district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. This region was previously called .
Nishi-Shinjuku was Tokyo's first major foray into building skyscrapers with the first appearing in the 1970s with Keio Plaza Inter-Continental. It ...
district in
Shinjuku
is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...
,
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. The building is home to three educational institutions: Tokyo Mode Gakuen (fashion vocational school), HAL Tokyo (special technology and design college), and Shuto Ikō (medical college). Completed in October 2008, the tower is the second-tallest educational building in the world and was the
17th-tallest building in Tokyo. It was awarded the 2008
Skyscraper of the Year by
Emporis
Emporis GmbH was a real estate data mining company that was headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022.
On 12 Sept ...
.
Design
Mode Gakuen invited architects to
compete
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...
to build its new Tokyo location, stipulating that the building could not be rectangular. About 50 architects submitted more than 150 proposals. The winner had a curved shell of white aluminum and dark blue glass, criss-crossed by a web of white diagonal lines. The architects, Tange Associates, said its cocoon-like shape symbolizes nurturing the students inside;
they also said they wanted the building to revitalize the surrounding area and to create a gateway between
Shinjuku Station
is a major railway station in the Shinjuku and Shibuya wards in Tokyo, Japan. In Shinjuku, it is part of the Nishi-Shinjuku and Shinjuku districts. In Shibuya, it is located in the Yoyogi and Sendagaya districts. It is the world's busiest rai ...
and the Shinjuku
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
.
The building earned the firm the Emporis 2008 Skyscraper of the year award.
Facilities
Built on the former site of the now-demolished
Asahi Life
is a Japanese insurance company, headquartered in Tokyo. The company was founded in 1888 and is, today, one of the oldest and largest insurers in Japan.
Asahi Mutual Life Insurance is a member of the Mizuho keiretsu
A is a set of compan ...
headquarters, construction of the Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower began in May 2006 and was completed in October 2008.
The -tall, 50-story tower is the second-tallest educational building in the world (surpassed only by the main building of the
Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
) and was the
17th-tallest building in Tokyo.
The vertical campus can accommodate 10,000 students for the three vocational schools that occupy the building. Tokyo Mode Gakuen, for which the building in named after, is a fashion school. The other schools, HAL Tokyo and Shuto Ikō, are
information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
and medical schools, respectively, that are operated by Mode Gakuen University. Each floor of the tower contains three rectangular classrooms that surround an inner core. The inner core consists of an elevator, a staircase and a support shaft. Every three floors, a three-story student lounge is located between the classrooms and faces three directions: east, southwest and northwest.
File:Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower inside - july 22 2016.jpg, Inside the tower, 2016
File:Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower detail side - july 22 2016.jpg, Detail of the façade, 2016
File:Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower in the evening with blue sky Tokyo Japan.jpg, The tower in the evening, 2019
File:Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower night Nov 16 2019 06-40PM.jpeg, The tower at night, 2019
File:Skyscrapers_of_Shinjuku_2009_January_(bannerportada_esvoy).jpg, In the 2009 skyline.
See also
*
Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers
is a 170-metre (558 ft), 36-story educational facility located in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. The building is home to three vocational schools: Nagoya Mode Gakuen, HAL Nagoya and Nagoya Isen.
It is one of the tallest buildings in Na ...
*
30 St Mary Axe
30 St Mary Axe (previously known as the Swiss Re Building and informally known as the Gherkin) is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. W ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Commercial buildings completed in 2008
High-tech architecture
Lattice shell structures
Skyscrapers in Shinjuku
Shimizu Corporation
2008 establishments in Japan