Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower

Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower
	Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, October 2008
Basic data
Place:	Tokyo , Japan
Construction time :	2006-2008
Opening:	October 2008
Architect :	Paul Noritaka Tange ; (Tange Associates)
Use / legal
Usage :	Vocational schools
Owner :	Mode Gakuen School Corporation
Technical specifications
Height :	204 m
Floors :	50 + 4 basement floors
Usable area :	3,542 m²
Floor area :	80,865 m²

The Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower ( Japanese モード学園コクーンタワー , Mōdo gakuen kokūn tawā ) is a 204 meter high skyscraper with a total of 50 floors. It is located in the Nishi-Shinjuku district in the Shinjuku district of the Japanese capital Tokyo . The architectural firm hired by the Kasuya brothers was Tange Associates , owned by Paul Noritaka Tange, the son of the famous architect Kenzo Tange . Mode is a French loan word that refers to the institute for fashion creation housed in it.

function

Nishi Shinjuku

After Moscow's Lomonosov University, the building is the second tallest skyscraper in the world and is exclusively used for educational institutions. The skyscraper houses three large vocational schools: the Tōkyō Mode Gakuen ( 東京モード学園 , German "Tokyo Fashion School"), the IT vocational school HAL Tōkyō (HAL 東京 for computer science and robotics ) and the Shuto Ikō ( 首都医校 , German "Capital Medical School" for nurses). There are also further training courses for photographers, hairdressers and car designers. Around 10,000 students can be trained here by Mode Gakuen , Japan's largest private provider of vocational schools. The Mode Gakuen School Corporation (学校法人モード学園) operates other schools in Tokyo, Nagoya ( Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers ), Osaka and Paris ( Creapole ).

In an egg-shaped auditorium with 1,000 seats next to the high-rise, lectures are held, but also lectures that are open to the public. Due to this openness to the public, the city administration allowed the builders to build a higher building. The top accessible floor contains a lounge with a view of the city.

construction

The Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower was completed in 2008 and was one of the twenty tallest buildings in Tokyo in 2012. Hundreds of diagonally arranged and concrete-filled steel girders support the three sides of the spindle-shaped building. This is intended to achieve greater stability against earthquakes. Additional translucent decorative ribbons that are randomly placed on the window front create the impression of a cocoon . The architect Tange justified his choice of the additional name Cocoon Tower for the building with a symbolic protective function for the young technical school students. The construction of the high-rise is clearly recognizable through the exposed ceilings and steel beams.

Three classrooms are arranged around the inner core on each floor. The core of the three-sided building contains elevators, a staircase and a freight elevator. On all three sides there are atrium- like schoolyards with 20 m high glass facades. The interior design as well as the construction was created by the architecture office in consultation with the school authority. From Shinjuku train station , direct underground access leads to the foyer of the building, which is located in the Shinjuku-West district, in which most of Tokyo's skyscrapers have so far been built.

Awards

2008: Skyscraper of the Year Award from Emporis
2012: International Highrise Award

Movie

Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, Tokyo. Documentary, Germany, 2012, 26 min., Script and director: Joachim Haupt and Sabine Pollmeier, production: Parnass Film, ZDF , arte , SBS , series: Faszination Wolkenkratzer, first broadcast: September 30, 2012 on arte, synopsis by ARD .