Tower of Winds
Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa, Japan · 1986
Photo · Photo by Tomio Ohashi
A seminal precedent for interactive, light-responsive infrastructure, demonstrating how a simple cylindrical volume clad in perforated metal can transform into a translucent, glowing urban beacon at night.
- What we like about this project
- The internal lighting patterns are designed to change in response to wind speed and ambient noise levels.
Materials
- perforated-aluminum
- glass
- steel
- neon-tubes
- incandescent-lamps
Visual identifiers
- glowing-tower
- perforated-metal-cladding
- cylindrical-structure
- light-architecture
- urban-beacon
Style tags
- high-tech
- minimalist
- interactive-media
Visual tags
- translucency
- kinetic-lighting
- monument
- infrastructure-art
- night-photography
- japanese-modernism
- Geometry
- A perfect vertical cylinder with a continuous curved skin, supported on a slightly recessed, elevated circular base.
- Facade system
- Perforated aluminum panels over a steel framework.
- Structural guess
- Steel frame cylinder with a central concrete core
- Spatial scale
- A mid-rise urban monument, approximately 21 meters tall, scaled to act as a visual landmark for both pedestrians and passing vehicles.
- Lighting
- Dynamic internal illumination featuring a mix of neon rings and floodlights that reflect off the inner metallic surfaces, creating a shimmering, translucent effect.
- Atmosphere
- Ethereal and futuristic, with the cold metallic structure warmed by complex internal light patterns.
- Environmental context
- Set within a dark urban plaza or traffic island at night, with distant city lights and street-level infrastructure visible.
- Spatial experience
- The tower functions as a highly transparent, glowing urban beacon at night, shifting from a solid metallic volume by day to an ethereal, light-filled column after dark.
- Composition rhythm
- A series of horizontal structural rings divide the cylinder into equal vertical segments, creating a steady, stacked rhythm.
- Style reading
- Late 20th-century high-tech environmental minimalism
- Program
- Ventilation shaft cover and public art installation
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- perforated-aluminum, glass, steel, neon-tubes, incandescent-lamps
- Visual identifiers
- glowing-tower, perforated-metal-cladding, cylindrical-structure, light-architecture, urban-beacon
- Style tags
- high-tech, minimalist, interactive-media
- Visual tags
- translucency, kinetic-lighting, monument, infrastructure-art, night-photography, japanese-modernism
- Geometry
- A perfect vertical cylinder with a continuous curved skin, supported on a slightly recessed, elevated circular base.
- Facade system
- Perforated aluminum panels over a steel framework.
- Structural guess
- Steel frame cylinder with a central concrete core
- Spatial scale
- A mid-rise urban monument, approximately 21 meters tall, scaled to act as a visual landmark for both pedestrians and passing vehicles.
- Lighting
- Dynamic internal illumination featuring a mix of neon rings and floodlights that reflect off the inner metallic surfaces, creating a shimmering, translucent effect.
- Atmosphere
- Ethereal and futuristic, with the cold metallic structure warmed by complex internal light patterns.
- Environmental context
- Set within a dark urban plaza or traffic island at night, with distant city lights and street-level infrastructure visible.
- Spatial experience
- The tower functions as a highly transparent, glowing urban beacon at night, shifting from a solid metallic volume by day to an ethereal, light-filled column after dark.
- Composition rhythm
- A series of horizontal structural rings divide the cylinder into equal vertical segments, creating a steady, stacked rhythm.
- Style reading
- Late 20th-century high-tech environmental minimalism
- Program
- Ventilation shaft cover and public art installation
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture