Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower

A 50-story educational skyscraper in Nishi-Shinjuku whose cocoon-shaped façade won the 2008 Emporis Skyscraper Award — the first time a Japanese building claimed the top prize.

Use

Office tower

Area

Shinjuku City

Completed

2008

Floors

50 above ground, 4 below

Height

203.65 m

Developer

Mode Gakuen School Corporation

Architect

Tange Associates (Noritaka Tange)

A Cocoon Rising over Nishi-Shinjuku

In October 2008, an unmistakable silhouette joined the skyscraper cluster of Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo. The Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower stands 50 stories above ground with four basement floors, reaching a height of approximately 204 meters. Its glass curtain wall is crossed by white lattices and divided into three outward-curving surfaces, giving the building the appearance of a giant cocoon stood on end — the form that gives the tower its name.

The design comes from Tange Associates, led by Noritaka Tange, son of the celebrated architect Kenzo Tange. The building is home to three large vocational schools: Tokyo Mode Gakuen (fashion), HAL Tokyo (technology and design), and Shuto Iko (medical). This combination — a supertall skyscraper built not for offices or apartments but for education — is virtually unmatched anywhere in the world.

In the year of its completion, the Cocoon Tower received the Emporis Skyscraper Award, ranking first globally. It was the first time a Japanese building had taken the top prize. The jury recognized both the architectural ambition of the form and the unusual function it houses.

A New Layer in the Nishi-Shinjuku Skyline

Nishi-Shinjuku’s forest of skyscrapers was largely formed in the 1970s and 1980s on land reclaimed from a former city reservoir, dominated by corporate office towers of similar profile. The Cocoon Tower arrived decades later and placed a very different purpose inside the same vertical vocabulary.

Students commute daily to classrooms stacked up to the 50th floor, looking out over central Tokyo. The lobby-level bustle differs from that of an office building — it pulses with the rhythm of class schedules, not business hours. In a neighbourhood defined by uniform glass towers, the organic shape of the Cocoon Tower and the energy of its occupants give Nishi-Shinjuku a dimension it otherwise lacks. The building’s unusual appearance is, in a sense, the honest expression of its unusual contents.

Summary

The Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower was completed in 2008 with 50 floors above ground, 4 below, and a height of approximately 204 meters. Designed by Tange Associates with a cocoon-shaped façade inspired by the idea of nurturing young talent, it became the first Japanese building to win the Emporis Skyscraper Award.

Visit Nishi-Shinjuku and scan the skyline west of the station — among the rows of glass-and-steel towers, one unmistakable curved form stands apart. Inside that cocoon, thousands of students are shaping their futures, floor by floor.

Related: Tokyo Opera City Tower / Shinjuku Center Building / Shinjuku Mitsui Building

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