Designed by Thomas Shingo Nagy

Over the past two decades, Tokyo has invested in the development of Odaiba, a landfill site along the waterfront district, as part of a larger effort to attract businesses away from the congested downtown area.  In contrast to the multi-layered and self-organized urban centers of Tokyo, Odaiba was master-planned to accommodate an array of skyscrapers connected by a transportation network and green space.  Although the site offers vast territories unprecedented in Tokyo, development by the private sector has been slow primarily due to its significant scale. The lack of human scale places significant risk upon investors and discourages small businesses to move in, resulting in less programmatic diversity and an ineptitude in being able to adapt to the needs of an ever changing society. In order to create a viable environment for a wide array of businesses to coexist and flourish, Soup City draws inspiration from the field-like urbanism of Tokyo as a model for successful development.

The recipe for Soup City consists of three urban ingredients found in Tokyo: active programs; open programs; and transportation infrastructure. Each ingredient is organized into a continuous ribbon, anchored on both ends to the surrounding context. These ribbons come together to form a knot, as they interweave, bundle, and shoot out like noodles in a cup of soup.  The “active ribbon” contains a series of service and entertainment programs such as retail, theaters, hotels, etc, which serve to attract various visitors into the complex.  The “open ribbon” is resizable rentable floor space, capable of accommodating small to large offices and private apartment blocks. Lastly, the “transportation ribbon” provides a means for servicing goods and moving visitors to and from specific locations within the complex.  It also provides parking spaces along its length. Unlike the stacked floor configuration of a conventional skyscraper, the linear organization of each ribbon allows for various components to grow or shrink without compromising the original structure.

As the ribbons bend and turn through the complex, they produce physical adjacencies in both plan and section, providing opportunities for hybridization to occur and synergistic relationships of various programs to develop. For example, boutique stores on the “active ribbon” will attract consumers to its periphery, creating an incentive for fashion designers to work and live in the adjacent spaces on the “open ribbon” due to its proximity. In a sense, the ribbons are conceived as an extension of the city; a newly found piece of property ready to accommodate ideas from developers and users. Therefore, the system does not impose a rigid or pre-determined outcome on a holistic level. Instead, it enables the self-organization of its contents by market forces, generating a fast metabolism for businesses to grow and expand. Ultimately, these three ingredients of Soup City work in concert to yield a dynamic and field-like urbanism present in Tokyo—that which becomes replicated, repackaged and transplanted into a new skyscraper typology.

Leave a Reply