Shibuya subway station

Since June 2008, the thriving Shibuya district of Tokyo has boasted an underground subway station in the shape of a spaceship



As people on upper floors peer down the well toward lower floors of Shibuya Station, the sightline grows narrower.


In the heart of Shibuya Station, a covered atrium slices down through all three floors, creating an open, airy feel.



Designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando , the station appears like an egg-shaped chichusen – meaning underground spaceship. Commuters must journey into the spaceship to reach their subway platforms. Follow this link for a really good 360° view of the Shibuya station

The new Shibuya subway station, a hub of the Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line, rejects conventional underground structures, hatching as an "earth ship" that resembles a floating spacecraft enclosed in a concrete container. The oval space stretches 80 m and is 24 m wide. Oval in shape, the void facilitates spatial recognition by providing reference points below the surface of the earth, where landmarks are rare or nonexistent. At the same time, it embodies dynamism and centrifugal strength, thus bolstering Ando’s vision of a space in which commuters and other subway travellers experience ephemeral encounters. The mono-spatial, egg-shaped hollow also permitted the integration of a natural aeration system, thanks to the use of an adjacent dry area, also underground, which was previously occupied by the city’s prestigious concert hall, the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan.

find via framemag.com