A 1:1000 Scale Diorama Model of Downtown Tokyo

Abstract

 The photograph is not a panoramic view of Tokyo but of an exquisite miniature model of the city built by Mori Building Co., Ltd., which has been involved in the construction of office buildings, city design, and urban redevelopment, as typified by Roppongi Hills. The model covers downtown Tokyo from Ueno Station in the north to Ohi Racecourse in the south, and from Kasai Rinkai Park in the east to Shinjuku in the west, about an area of 220 km² at a scale of 1:1000 (normally closed to the public viewers). All of the buildings in the area were accurately depicted using photographs taken from a helicopter and a car replicating their original shapes and colors. The model incorporates infrastructure such as highways, railways, bridges, and port facilities to form a complete diorama.
 Tokyo, one of the largest cities in the world, is now facing inherent issues of infrastructural deterioration, fragmented landscape, overconcentration of political and economic functions, and increased risk of mega-natural hazards. It is beneficial to build and use a realistic 3D model of Tokyo in order to improve municipal performance and make a grand design. Recent advances in geospatial information platforms have enabled us to construct a detailed 3D architectural model in a virtual space. However, a miniature model of a city (diorama) is still at the leading edge of landscape design and city planning due to its substance and ability to allow many viewers to understand how the city is put together simultaneously. The diorama of downtown Tokyo is expected to be used to create a grand design of Tokyo in the future.
(Photo courtesy of Mori Building Co., Ltd.; Explanation: Tomio INAZAKI and Toshio KIKUCHI)