Plan for Tokyo 1960 (unbuilt)

Core idea

Megastructure bay spine

Why it matters

Icon of metabolist regional thinking

Description

Kenzo Tange's unbuilt 1960 Plan for Tokyo proposed extending the congested city out over the bay on a vast linear megastructure — a civic axis of stacked transport and floating modules of housing and offices — a Metabolist vision of the city as a growing, organic megaform.

Significance

Tange's plan is the landmark statement of Japanese Metabolism and megastructure thinking, reimagining the metropolis as an extensible organism. Hugely influential on radical urbanism, it remains a touchstone for visionary city design.

What shaped it

• Ville Contemporaine / Plan Voisin / Ville Radieuse (1922–1933)
• The master plan (early 20th c.)
• The superblock (1920s–30s / 2016 revival)

Plans it influenced

• Skopje 1963 Master Plan (1965)
• Naples Centro Direzionale (1982–)
• Tokyo Roppongi Hills Masterplan (2003)
• Tokyo Otemachi–Marunouchi–Yurakucho (OMY) District Plan (1998–)
• Astana New Capital Master Plan (Kurokawa) (1998)

Sources

• https://udcsa.gsd.harvard.edu/projects/64
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenz%C5%8D_Tange