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Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center

building in Tokyo

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 5, 2025
Entity authorityQ20040491 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center is a building located in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan. Built in 1967, it is considered to be the first realization of Kenzo Tange's Metabolist movement, which called for a new urban typology that could self-perpetuate in an organic, "metabolic" way. It was built on a 189 square metres (2,030 sq ft) triangular site, and erected around a column, 7.7 metres (25 ft) in diameter, which forms the building's central core, and around which thirteen individual offices are connected asymmetrically. The building was meant to be a prototype for a perpetually regenerating, prefabricated urban megastructure. It was designed with the intention that the space between the office clusters could be filled with additional offices in the future as demand increased. However, this idea was never realized and the building remains unchanged since it was built. Despite this, it is still considered to be a aesthetically notable example of form and function.

Metabolist movement

After World War II, a group of Japanese architects, including Kenzo Tange, began exploring the concept of "Metabolism" in their work. Tange and the Metabolist movement believed that design and technology should be a reflection of human society and that they should strive to actively encourage the development of society through their designs. They saw human society as a continuous process of growth and development, like the biological concept of metabolism, and wanted to use their designs to promote this growth.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center” is building in Tokyo. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Shizuoka, Press and Broadcasting, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1967—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1967. For this dossier, Shizuoka, Press and Broadcasting is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “building in Tokyo” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q20040491. Authority coordinates are 35.669, 139.759. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1967.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center primary sources, Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center archive and Shizuoka research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.