Shibaura Island

A six-hectare residential redevelopment district surrounded on all sides by canals in Minato City's Shibaura 4-chome. Four supertall towers completed between 2006 and 2008 created a canal-ringed community of approximately 4,000 units.

Use

Residential tower

Area

Minato City

Completed

2008

Floors

49 above ground

Developer

Mitsui Fudosan and others

Architect

Kajima Corporation and others

A residential island in the canals of Shibaura

Shibaura 4-chome, Minato City, Tokyo. Situated midway between Tamachi and Hamamatsucho stations, this roughly six-hectare area was once an industrial waterfront of factories and warehouses. Between 2006 and 2008, it was transformed into Shibaura Island: a large-scale residential community built on land enclosed on all sides by canals.

The development is organized around four supertall towers. Grove Tower (49 stories, 833 units) and Cape Tower (48 stories, 1,095 units) were the first to be completed, in November 2006 and January 2007 respectively. Air Tower (48 stories, 871 units) followed in March 2007, and Bloom Tower (48 stories, 1,028 units) was completed in September 2008. Together the four towers hold approximately 4,000 residential units, forming a community of an estimated 10,000 residents on what was formerly an industrial site.

Grove Tower and Cape Tower were designed and built by Kajima Corporation. Bloom Tower was constructed by Shimizu Corporation. Mitsui Fudosan led the consortium of developers that also included Mitsubishi Corporation, Orix Real Estate, Sumitomo Corporation, Nippon Steel City Produce, and Itochu Urban Community.

The canal boundary and the self-contained island

The defining condition of Shibaura Island is its geography: water on all sides. This creates an unusual sense of self-containment in otherwise densely developed Minato City. In response to the encircling canals, the development included pedestrian bridges, waterside promenades, and tree-lined paths that ring the island perimeter, integrating the waterfront condition into the daily landscape.

Compared to other Tokyo waterfront redevelopments such as Toyosu or Kachidoki, Shibaura Island is more completely surrounded by water, giving it a distinct character as a quasi-island community. The ambition extended beyond aggregating towers to designing a water-adjacent neighborhood that works with, rather than ignores, its canal geography.

Summary

Shibaura Island is a residential redevelopment district in Minato City’s Shibaura 4-chome, developed between 2006 and 2008. Its four supertall towers — the tallest reaching 49 stories — and total of approximately 4,000 units occupy a canal-ringed island converted from an industrial site. Walking from Tamachi Station toward the waterfront and crossing the bridge onto the island immediately conveys the distinctive geography this redevelopment chose to work with — a quietly compelling example of how Tokyo’s industrial waterfront has been remade as a place to live.