OMA's First Mixed-Use Building on Omotesando Under Construction

John Hill

3. November 2022

NTT Harajuku Quest, Aerial View (Visualization © OMA and INPLACE)

OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture has released renderings of Harajuku Quest, a commercial and cultural center that just started construction on Tokyo's fashionable Omotesando, not far from the famed Meiji Shrine.

Although the project designed by OMA New York under partner Shohei Shigematsu is being billed as "the firm’s first ground-up mixed-use building in Omotesando," it is not the first OMA project on the thoroughfare of the same name. That honor goes to the nearly ten-year-old Coach Omotesando, a storefront for the fashion house that was also designed by Shigematsu. While Coach is located on the tony stretch of Omotesando also home to Dior and Louis Vuitton, among other brands in bespoke buildings designed by famous architects, the site for Harajuku Quest is on a hinge between Omotesando and Oku-Harajuku, located just east of Yoyogi Park, Meiji Jingu (home to Meiji Shrine), and Harajuku Station.

NTT Harajuku Quest, Concept Diagram (Drawing © OMA)

With the character of Oku-Harajuku being more fine-grained than the wide, tree-lined thoroughfare of Omotesando, OMA's design for NTT Urban Development's Harajuku Quest appropriately terraces down from a faceted glass volume facing Omotesando to a one-story passage in the middle of the block. As described by OMA in a statement, their project manipulated the form to relate to "the growing need for expressive branding in retail architecture" on Omotesando and the "'village' townscape of tight, organic streets and human-scale buildings housing independent shops" in Oku-Harajuku.

NTT Harajuku Quest, Omotesando View (Visualization © OMA and INPLACE)

NTT Harajuku Quest, Terrace View (Visualization © OMA and INPLACE)

"The conjunction of Omotesando and Oku-Harajuku embodies a duality of urban context as well as Tokyo’s fashion and retail culture. It was essential for the new building to bridge the two areas and express two stories. Like two sides of the same coin, a single building conveys alternate personalities, connected by a new public corridor. Harajuku Quest acts as both a visual and programmatic convergence point of Omotesando and Oku-Harajuku — a gathering place where visitors can experience the activities and aura of global fashion and local cultural scene simultaneously."
Shohei Shigematsu, OMA Partner

NTT Harajuku Quest, Omotesando Entry (Visualization © OMA and INPLACE)

NTT Harajuku Quest, Oku Harajuku Entry (Visualization © OMA and INPLACE)

OMA New York's project replaces the original Harajuku Quest, which opened in 1988, closed in October 2021, and was subsequently demolished. Construction of the new 87,000-square-feet complex began in October 2022 and is expected to be complete by February 2025.