courtesy Mitsuru Hamada

© Mitsuru Hamada . Pubblicata il 23 Marzo 2006.

Hamada’s winning entry was a large, ziggurat-like structure on the former site of Edo Castle in what is now central Tokyo. Completed in 1638 by the Tokugawa Shogunate, the grand, 58-meter-tall citadel was destroyed by fire just 19 years later, in 1657. To this day the area remains a kind of natural, undeveloped “void” amongst the city’s relentless urbanization.

courtesy Mitsuru Hamada

© Mitsuru Hamada . Pubblicata il 23 Marzo 2006.

Hamada’s proposal, titled Porous Drape, represents a poetic recreation of Edo Castle. Also 58-meters-tall, the gently tapering edifice is open to the elements and is characterized by 100 angular openings, which invite visitors to contemplate the surrounding park. To minimize environmental impact, it would be constructed of tightly packed blocks of soil, each measuring 20-square-centimeters, cut from the base of the site and mixed with cement, sand and water.

courtesy Mitsuru Hamada

© Mitsuru Hamada . Pubblicata il 23 Marzo 2006.

Abalos noted that the jury was impressed by the simplicity, intensity and monumentality of Hamada’s design. “This is a true observatory, a place of meditation and solitude from which to contemplate the landscape,” he explains. “At the same time, it also has a strong social aspect and a very powerful sense of collective participation.”

courtesy Mitsuru Hamada

© Mitsuru Hamada . Pubblicata il 23 Marzo 2006.

courtesy Mitsuru Hamada

© Mitsuru Hamada . Pubblicata il 23 Marzo 2006.