Next Tokyo: Model for the Future

“Next Tokyo” is an exercise in sustainable big thinking for the future. It is the imagining a resurgent mega-city adapted to climate change with the realization of a highdensity eco-district built on resilient infrastructure. The archipelago of reclaimed land supports transit-oriented development for a half-million occupants while improving the resilience of Tokyo Bay against water-born risks. The proposal was featured in NHK Japan’s documentary series “Next World”, which aired February 8th, 2015, and later presented in the CTBUH Journal 2015 Issue II.

Rising sea levels, seismic and increased typhoon risk have raised consensus on the need for a strategy that offers protection to the lowelevation coastal zones surrounding Tokyo Bay. Next Tokyo addresses this city-wide vulnerability by providing coastal defense infrastructure which offers protection to the shoreline of Upper Tokyo Bay.

These resilient infrastructural elements dual-function as the foundations for clusters of recreational open spaces and high-density development across the bay, including the “Sky Mile Tower” reaching over 1,600m in height. As a development strategy, a portion of the value generated from this new desirable waterfront real estate would in return contribute to the cost of the municipal infrastructure.

Next Tokyo occupies Tokyo Bay in the spirit of Metabolist urban planning while responding to contemporary desires to realize a symbolic mile-high tower; it creates a megastructure with a vertical height matching the base unit of distance for nearly all modes of horizontal transportation. The feasibility of this proposal is reinforced by the leveraging and integration of technological advancements.

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Materials provided by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates,
Leslie Earl Robertson Structural Engineering