Daimyo Garden Square competition win

In a nation-wide design competition, teams of developers and architects were tasked with redeveloping the former Daimyo elementary school site in central Fukuoka as part of the Tenjin Big Bang project, a project aimed at making Fukuoka an Asian Business hub.

The former school building is currently in use as a community building for start-ups. Directly behind the building lies a 3,000sqm sports ground that will play a major role in the redevelopment as public green area and a link to the Tenjin area.

The design approach for the main building, a 24 storey commercial tower with a retail podium, offices and the future Ritz-Carlton hotel, is to open up the public approach from Tenjin by splitting the volume over its entire height and twisting the 2 volumes away from each other to create space on street level. The lower levels feature landscaped terraces that open up towards the public courtyard. The two towers have a curtain wall facade with vertical and horizontal fins at each level. The centre section has a more transparent facade treatment that helps with setting the two tower volumes apart.

This will be one of the tallest buildings (110m) in central Fukuoka after a recent height relaxation introduced by the City and will no doubt change the skyline of Fukuoka.

The project is under construction and is expected to complete in late 2022.