Brillia Tower Ikebukuro

A 49-story, 189-metre supertall tower steps from Ikebukuro Station, where Toshima City Hall and 432 private condominiums share a single building — Japan's first civic-office-plus-residence integrated high-rise, completed in 2015.

Use

Residential tower

Area

Toshima City

Completed

2015

Floors

49 above ground, 3 below

Height

189 m

Developer

Tokyo Tatemono / Metropolitan Housing Supply Association

Architect

Nihon Sekkei (design supervision: Kengo Kuma and Associates)

A City Hall Inside a Skyscraper

Just east of Ikebukuro Station, where a dense residential district once stood, a 49-story tower appeared in March 2015. Brillia Tower Ikebukuro — formally named Toshima Ecomusee Town — places Toshima City Hall on floors 3 through 9 and 432 for-sale condominiums on floors 11 through 49, all under a single roof. Combining a functioning city administration with a private residential tower in one structure was unprecedented in Japan at the time.

Nihon Sekkei handled the design, with Kengo Kuma and Associates providing supervision for the exterior. Tokyo Tatemono and the Metropolitan Housing Supply Association were the vendors, and Taisei Corporation carried out construction. The building’s white structural frame interwoven with glass gives it a composed presence amid Ikebukuro’s busy commercial surroundings — an architecture that holds itself together even against the density of one of Tokyo’s busiest hubs.

A Civic Experiment Born from Redevelopment

Toshima City Hall had long occupied an ageing building on the west side of Ikebukuro Station. When the South Ikebukuro 2-chome district became the target of large-scale urban redevelopment, the city saw an opening: rather than construct a separate hall elsewhere, it embedded its functions into the lower floors of the new high-rise. The arrangement allowed the redevelopment to proceed economically while delivering renewed civic infrastructure — a model that required the South Ikebukuro 2-chome Area Urban Redevelopment Association, made up of local landowners, to share the benefits of the project with both the city and private buyers. Toshima City Hall opened for business in May 2015.

From ground level, the civic lower section and the residential tower above read as a continuous whole. Inside, residents and visitors entering for city hall errands share the same lobby, elevators, and entrance canopy — a reminder that the same vertical stack serves two entirely different programmes.

Summary

Brillia Tower Ikebukuro was completed in 2015, rising 49 floors to a height of 189 metres. Its most unusual feature — a city government and 432 private homes occupying the same building — introduced a replicable model for urban redevelopment in Japan. Walk from Ikebukuro Station and look up: the building makes it concrete that administration and residence can share a single piece of architecture, stacked one above the other in the heart of the city.

Related: Sunshine 60 | Cocoon Tower (Mode Gakuen)

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