ASAKUSA 浅草 TOKYO

9x12

Kengo Kuma’s Asakusa Tourist and Cultural Center: Asakusa’s own grilled yakitori skewer. Chicken hearts, gizzards and thigh meat ready to be washed down with a beer. Architecture that wants to cause a traffic accident. This building is a series of stacked wooden “Nagaya” houses - each with their own protruding roof and floor slope. Despite the irregular massing, the facade is brilliantly unifying. The effect from the street is stunning, mind-blowing. The different levels convey different programmatic functions, depending upon what needs to happen inside, including exhibition and performance spaces. And the eighth floor contains an observation deck.