5. A Plan for Tokyo, 2020: Five Purr-fect Points for Feline Architecture
Kuma Kengo x Takram
In 1961, in advance of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the architect Tange Kenzo (1913-2005) published “A Plan for Tokyo 1960,” a groundbreaking proposal to build a floating city over Tokyo Bay, in an architectural journal. As a response to this legendary proposal, here Kuma presents the results of “A Plan for Tokyo, 2020: Five Purr-fect Points for Feline Architecture,” a research project that reinterprets the urban environment from a very different perspective. While Tange looked at the city from above when creating his plan for a human-built megastructure on the water, Kuma arrived at the idea of looking at it from below, from the vantage point of cats. He collaborated with Takram, one of Japan’s top design engineering firms, on the presentation of this heartwarming yet radical vision.
©Kengo Kuma and Associates
©Takram