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Rafael ViAoly

Tokyo International Forum Tokyo. Japan, 1989-96 located dose to the Tokyo JR Railway Station, this enormous 130,000 m^} complex will have cost morę than SI .6 billion to build. Chosen from amongst 395 entnes from fifty different countries, the project of Rafael Viftoly features the largest theater in Tokyo (5,000 seats) as well as a Class Hall measuring 191 m in length, 30 m in width and no less than 57 m in height.

cisely its tower, and as Isozaki points out, despite some investigation in this direc-tion by Buckminster Fuller, there is no architectural equivalent of the form of this tower. Surrounded by European references, it rises above them and creates a new, sculptural presence on the Iow skyline of this otherwise architecturally undistin-guished suburb.

Another, even morę ambitious cultural center is being completed in the Marunouchi District of Tokyo, facing the outer Cardens of the Imperial Pałace to the west. Rafael Vińoly's Tokyo International Forum is situated on a 3 ha site where the Tokyo City Hall and City Council Building was formerly located, and will accommod-ate dance, musical and theatrical performances, conventions and trade shows, business meetings and receptions. It will also house offices, cultural information centers and public spaces. Vifioly was selected by a jury that induded I.M. Pei,

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