Kobe Port Tower

Standing 108 metres tall in Kobe's Meriken Park since 1963, this red hyperboloid tower — the world's first all-pipe-structure building — was renovated and reopened in April 2024 as a renewed observation facility.

Use

Office tower

Area

Chuo Ward, Kobe

Completed

1963

Height

108 m

The Iron Beauty of Kobe Harbour

Walk through the hillside streets and foreign-built residences of Kobe toward the harbour and a slender red tower comes into view above the waterline. Kobe Port Tower was completed in 1963, rising 108 metres from Meriken Park in the distinctive profile of a double-curved drum. Its graceful form earned it the Japanese nickname “tettō no bijin” — the iron beauty — early in its life, and the name has stuck.

What makes the tower significant in engineering history is its structure. The narrowed waist and flared top and bottom are created by a hyperboloid framework: steel pipes arranged in a diagonal lattice, twisted and interlocking to form the curved surface. Kobe Port Tower was the world’s first building constructed entirely with this all-pipe hyperboloid approach. It achieves high structural strength with a minimum of steel, and the construction was carried out by Obayashi Corporation.

Surviving Earthquake, Reopening Renewed

Kobe Port Tower stood through the Great Hanshin Earthquake of January 1995, emerging intact from an event that killed more than six thousand people and heavily damaged the city around it. The tower became a reference point for the city’s recovery — a visible sign that the port had endured. In September 2021 it closed for seismic reinforcement and a comprehensive renovation, and on 26 April 2024 it reopened with updated observation facilities while retaining the original hyperboloid structure that defines its appearance.

Meriken Park sits at the centre of Kobe’s main tourist waterfront, within walking distance of the Harbourland shopping district to the west and Nankinmachi (Chinatown) to the east. The tower stands beside the Kobe Maritime Museum, together occupying a former port area that has been opened to the public as a harbourfront park.

Summary

Kobe Port Tower was completed in 1963 to a height of 108 metres, earning recognition as the world’s first all-pipe hyperboloid structure. Its vermilion colour and curved silhouette have defined the Kobe harbour view for over sixty years. Renovated and reopened in April 2024, the tower invites a closer look at both the engineering of its latticed pipes and the panorama of the Seto Inland Sea beyond.

Related buildings: Akashi Kaikyo Bridge / Tokyo Tower

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