In a city where verticality and velocity dominate, Cornes House by Takenaka Corporation rewrites the rules of urban architecture, layered, textured and tuned to Tokyo’s pulse.
Info and Images: Takenaka Corporation
Urban Envelope as Interface
Cornes House, the new headquarters and showroom for Cornes & Company Limited, rises in central Tokyo with a deliberate defiance of the generic office block. Designed by Ikuya Hanaoka and his team at Takenaka Corporation during the global pandemic, the building is a manifesto for the value of physical place in a hybrid world.
Its form is a direct response to the site’s layered context, Shiba Park to the north, a curving expressway slicing past and the dense business district to the south.
The building’s massing is a staggered stack of volumes, each angled to engage with its surroundings. The lower platform aligns with the highway’s elevation, transforming into a car showroom and exhibition terrace visible to passing traffic. Above, volumes pivot toward the park and city, creating human-scale terraces that blur the line between interior and exterior. This isn’t just a façade, it’s a spatial interface, reacting to wind, light and urban flow.
The concrete envelope is textured and folded, with deep cuts and angled recesses that animate the southwest wall. A dramatic fold along the southern façade retreats from the street, carving out a sheltered space for a Smart car and offering a subtle nod to Tokyo’s micro-scale urbanism. The building morphs throughout the day, windows open and close, revealing kaleidoscopic glimpses of interior life. It’s a building in dialogue, not just with its context, but with its occupants and passersby.
Material Intelligence & Environmental Response
Cornes House is as much about atmosphere as it is about form. The building harnesses Tokyo’s natural rhythms, northern winds are drawn in and softened, southern sunlight is filtered and northern skylight is diffused across workspaces.
Each floor offers a distinct green experience: upper levels overlook a “green carpet,” middle floors wrap around park-facing terraces and the lower courtyard is planted with seasonal trees.
Material selection reinforces this environmental choreography. Concrete surfaces echo the park’s textures, creating continuity between built and natural. Interior finishes shift subtly with light and time, reinforcing the building’s dynamic character.
Sustainability here isn’t performative, it’s embedded in the spatial logic, the passive systems and the lived experience.
Cornes House doesn’t just occupy Tokyo, it resonates with it. It’s a building that understands the city’s complexity and responds with nuance, tactility and edge. For architects and urbanists, it’s a reminder that innovation lives not in spectacle, but in specificity.