A three-story office and retail complex in the Minami Aoyama area of Tokyo, Green Triangle—Aoyama 346 is an interplay of multiple green triangles, which articulate the liminal spaces that intermediate between the interior and the exterior of the building. The design is also a response to the client’s request to create “an urban oasis” in the very heart of the city.

The project sits on a hilly, “flagpole” 750-square-meter site that is cornered by streets to the west, east, and north—the last one of which is a private driveway that is integrated into the overall design.

The design primarily exploits these site conditions by referencing the geometry of triangles that variegate in their materiality, hue, and density as they progress from the exterior into the interior.

A triangular, two-story void features potted plants that hang from above, folding in greenery into the building and offering visual connection with the adjacent main street through its glass curtain wall.

Retail and restaurant spaces are punctured by semi-open triangular balconies around the building’s corners.

A triangular bridge connects the two zones of the complex, from which exposed beams intersect on the exterior to juxtapose the building with the landscape elements. In particular, the linear arrangement of mirror stainless steel, LED light, flexible board, and glass in the skylight hall showcases an infinite interplay of angular forms, where sunlight pours through the top light and the vertical slit and bounces off among the striated, reflective materials.

These elements, together with the surrounding landscape, are projected onto the lustrous tiles on the façade and the glass curtain walls, as well as the mirror stainless steel that lines the interior hallway, further reinforcing the idea of interpenetration.

Data sheet
Architects: Ryuichi Sasaki + Rieko Okumura / SASAKI ARCHITECTURE
Architectural Team: Ryuichi Sasaki, Rieko Okumura, Mikio Sasaki, Kiyoshi Iwabuchi, Miwa Takeuchi, Mieko Watanabe, Akemi Nozawa, Anna Kwapień / SASAKI ARCHITECTURE

Landscape Design: Takeshi Matsuo + Takeshi Mita/PLAT design
Graphic Design: Ryuichi Nambu/Nambu Design + Yoshinari Takahashi
Lighting Design: Kazuhiro Kawamura/sola associates
Structure Engineering: OZ.An + Rhythm Design

Mechanical & Electrical Engineering: Yuko Sakurai / Hezeraf

Facade Engineering: STANDARD

Contractor: SHIN
PM: N ASSET TOKYO
Client: KIKUMOTO
Photography: Koichi Torimura, Ryota Atarashi

Site Area: 751.71 SQM

Building Area: 1136.75 SQM

Structure: steel structure 3 stories

Location: 3-4-6 Minamiaoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Grand Opening: Spring 2015

About Ryuichi Sasaki (Director CEO, SASAKI ARCHITECTURE)

2018 German Design Award, Winner

2017 International Design Awards, Gold Winner

2016, 2017 Leaf Awards, Shortlisted

2015, 2016, 2017 Iconic Awards, Winner

2007 AR Awards for Emerging Architecture 2007 “Commended” (Architectural Review, London, UK)
2004-Present SASAKI ARCHITECTURE, Principal
1996–2004 Kumesekkei Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
1994–1995 Asymptote Architecture, NYC, USA
1994–1995 Columbia University, NYC, USA, Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design
1989–1994 Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA, Bachelor of Architecture
1970 Born in Tokyo, Japan