Ginza Sony Park is an experimental park in the middle of the city which carries on the founding concept of the original Sony Building built in 1966 as a facility open to the public. It will be open for a period of around three years before the Sony Building is reconstructed. Opened in 2018, this wide open, vertically theme three-dimensional park consists of a flat, roughly 707 square meter above-ground area, and a lower park area comprised of four underground floors connected by a central stairwell.

It will be open until the end of September 2021. Reconstruction will then proceed until the year 2025 when the facility opens in its final phase as Ginza Sony Park. In 2020, Ginza Sony Park won an iF Gold Award in the discipline of architecture from the iF DESIGN AWARD 2020. The Gold Award is the highest-ranking award presented at this competition, which is one of the top three design competitions in the world. Ginza Sony Park is part of Sony’ s brand communication, and the Ginza Sony Park Project business plan to renovate the Sony Building in Tokyo’ s Ginza neighborhood has itself earned recognition. One iF DESIGN AWARD juror had the following to say.

“Ginza Sony Park in Tokyo is not a new building at all. Instead, the project dismantles the iconic high-rise Sony building and reimagines the space with new constructions and concepts. This wide-ranging and imaginative project reacts flexibly to the usage pattern and requirements of local residents. Bold, brilliant and poised for the future!”

Additionally, architect Nobuo Araki who is part of the Ginza Sony Park Project and designed its architecture, had the following comments to share. Everything in this world, including architecture, has an inevitable lifespan and expiration. Unlike human beings, a building does not have the ability to renew itself, leaving us humans responsible for its transformation and fate. We make decisions for when a building reaches the end of a life cycle, but I believe that not all architecture needs to be completely demolished, as long as intention and system is in place.

To maintain the intention and system of the original Sony Building, we established the Ginza Sony Park Project, where the members consisted of the Sony team, an architect, an architectural historian, a curator, a business designer and an editor. Nobuo Araki / The Archetype had the privilege of working on the project as one of the board members. The intent of the project was not to merely build a brand new building, but to construct a diverse and objective place that lives with the society. Team formations were shued for dierent aspects of the project, and every team member had a say in decisions such as the building lease and space designs.

When the original Sony Building was constructed, one of Sony’ s founders Akio Morita and architect Yoshinobu Ashihara proposed a Sony Square concept that conceptualized Ginza as a garden — a concept in which we interpreted and used as a foundation of the new Ginza Sony Park. We recognized that the original Sony Building had naturally become a junction for people to meet, so we preserved the street level* and lower levels that connect to the subways and underground pedestrian routes, while drastically downsizing the upper levels.

This meant that we viewed the building as a site rather than an architectural building. In an attempt to preserve the building’ s rich history, we designed the interior of the four basement floors as if their surfaces had been cut away, allowing us to reveal various finishes from past renovations. This method was selected not only to reduce construction time and cost, but to also make the most out of the architecture with minimal additions. We also prepared Demolition Instructions for the team and construction crew in order to eciently “design” the demolition process. We opened up the ceilings from the street level* down to the B4 floors as an atrium to seamlessly connect the four levels. By intentionally keeping a number of spaces void and unused, we made room for flexibility for the various activities scheduled leading up to the end of the Ginza Sony Park.

While sustaining intention and system as a core structure for the project, we imagined Ginza Sony Park as a blank platform that develops alongside the city and society, while continuing to innovate and move forward — a notion that I believe Sony always has and will continue to stand for.

The Ginza Sony Park Project is a project for the renovation of the Sony Building, with three aims: to create a new hub for Sony brand promotion, oer people interactive new experiences, and make Ginza a more comfortable town. The Sony Building, which was built in 1966, has gone through a reinvention and emerge in August 2018 as "Ginza Sony Park." The idea of providing a public space has been present since the very beginning of the Sony Building, in the form of Sony Square, known as the"Garden of Ginza." Ginza Sony Park is a reinterpretation of this concept, and will act as an interesting, attractive newspace in Ginza.

This wide open, vertically themed three-dimensional park consists of a flat, roughly 707 square meter above-ground area, and a lower park area comprised of four underground floors. The park retains the characteristic structure of the old Sony Building, while oering expansive underground spaces to relax and enjoy. This experimental park in the middle of the city oers a variety of interactive events, experiences, and other programs that stimulate surprise and playful enjoyment throughout the year. There are also plans to construct a final phase of Ginza Sony Park that will inherit this concept of public space, and bring a new rhythm to the town and its people, with construction to be completed in 2025.