Honor Award
Walking the Talk -Ichigaya Forest
Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, Japan
Principal Landscape Architect: John S. Loomis,
Client: Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
Dai Nippon Printing Company’s “Ichigaya Forest” sets a stunning precedent of urban planning and landscape design towards making our urban environments more livable and resilient in the face of climate change. DNP’s branding statement, “today’s innovation is tomorrow’s basic,”was forefront when redeveloping their 5.4-hectare (13.3 acres), factory site in the Ichigaya neighborhood of Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. The 141-year-old company certainly understands the relevancy of sustainability and resilience. Climate change is metrically identifiable in the megalopolis of Tokyo with a 3 degree Centigrade (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in temperature over the last century. DNP and their design team understood that responsible urban redevelopment, locally and globally, must respond to – and combat – that change. To that end, DNP’s vertical and subterranean development coupled with printing modernization contributes to what will ultimately provide nearly 3.2 hectares (7.9 acres) of at-grade, privately owned and fostered public open space, coined “Ichigaya Forest.”With two of three phases completed, and performance being closely monitored, Ichigaya Forest is already worthy of notice, and the best is yet to come.
