Ginza Sony Park: The Urban Park of the Future

TOKYO, Feb. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Newly opened on January 26, 2025 in the bustling neighborhood of Ginza, Ginza Sony Park reimagines the concept of a public park. Ginza Sony Park was designed to be completely open to the public. It will serve as a platform that synthesizes the spirit of Tokyo, making contemporary Japanese culture available to all. In addition to ample places to gather, socialize and rest, it will also have rotating exhibitions, pop-ups, installations and events featuring some of the country's most notable artists and creatives.

• A Park of Ginza/A Park for Ginza

Even within Ginza, this urban park is set in an ideal location. It faces Sukiyabashi Crossing, a busy intersection that attracts hundreds of thousands of people per day.

On its basement level, it's connected directly to the subway concourse and one of the area's largest underground parking lots. Accessibility is at the heart of Ginza Sony Park's design.

On the street level, a steady stream of pedestrians will be drawn in by the structure's intriguing, open entrance; from the subway, visitors can make their way in with smoothness and ease.

Many will come for the events and exhibitions, but the building's striking architecture also makes it a sightseeing spot in its own right.

Open to the Public

The original Sony Building was constructed in 1966, a shining icon of futuristic architecture.

The Sony Building was designed to be inviting. Indeed, one of the most unique aspects of the building was that it left a small square of land open on the corner of its plot, opting not to develop it, but rather to turn it into a public space: a "Garden of Ginza" for all Tokyoites to use.

Ginza Sony Park inherits this philosophy from the original building and expands on it, both in terms of literal scale and in terms of ambition. Five decades after its creation, the 33-square-meter Garden of Ginza has evolved into an entire Park of Ginza: an urban refuge where visitors are free to enjoy themselves however they please.

• Architecture and Design: A Park Without Boundaries

Ginza Sony Park represents more than a physical space ? it's a concept, a bold rethinking of how cities can create meaningful connections between people, culture and their environments. The building's design reflects its ultimate purpose: to serve as a platform where the urban rhythm plays out. It's a striking steel-frame concrete structure, with five above-ground floors and three basement floors. Its height is intentionally low ? around half as tall as the surrounding structures ? in order to foster openness and enhance the city's landscape. This sense of openness pervades the building as well.

On the street level, there are no doors or walls, allowing visitors to freely and casually flow in. Throughout, Ginza Sony Park incorporates a layered, open-plan design that cleverly makes use of indoor-outdoor spaces. Unique architectural features like a gently sloping spiral staircase connect each level in a "vertical promenade" that aids easy exploration and discovery.

In the glitzy cityscape of Ginza, Ginza Sony Park stands out. Its exposed-concrete design is a rarity in the area. The stainless steel grid-like façade enmeshing the building enhances its minimalistic, modern and clean aesthetic. This grid frame isn't merely visually appealing; it can also be used in activities in installations, showcasing art and information to the hundreds of thousands of people who pass by on a daily basis. Rather than using this space to advertise corporate products, Ginza Sony Park has used it as a means of delivering meaningful social messages. In 2024, for instance, it was home to artfully-designed billboards that raised awareness about endangered species.

The Legacy of the Sony Building 

Many elements of the original Sony Building are preserved or alluded to in Ginza Sony Park; the frame of the former Sony Building, for instance, remains in the portion that connects to the subway concourse. The new building's "vertical promenade" style is also inspired by the original Sony Building's structure, which had an open, spiraling interior that connected its eight above-ground floors, creating a seamless flow between levels.

Sony co-founder Akio Morita was drawn to this design, as he felt that it connected to the culture of Gin-bura, a Japanese term that refers to strolling around Ginza. In the Sony Building ? and now in Sony Ginza Park ? the unique architecture allows for a sort of vertical Gin-bura, where guests can ascend smoothly and seamlessly from the city streets without the use of stairs or an elevator.

• A Hub for Art, Culture and Cuisine

Ginza Sony Park will function as a cultural hub, hosting events, exhibitions, dining experiences and performances celebrating local and global culture. There will be no permanent storefronts, and the exhibitions and activities held on each floor will periodically change, creating a sense of constant renewal and enticing visitors to revisit again and again.

Sony Park Exhibition 2025

The first program concurrently happening with the grand opening is "Sony Park Exhibition 2025", a creative interactive program produced together with six artists mainly from the Sony Music Group and the Sony Group's six segments of business as the theme: video games, music, movies, entertainment technology, semiconductors and finance. This special program unites artists, Sony's technology and the unique themes of Ginza Sony Park. It's a celebration of creativity and innovation that can't be experienced anywhere else. One of the most striking features of the program is the way in which it centers the artists' visions, utilizing state-of-the-art technology to enhance the worldbuilding of their music ? visitors truly feel transported into each one's inner world. "Sony Park Exhibition 2025" is running till June, 2025.  (An advance reservation is required)

https://www.sonypark.com/e/activity/001/

Local and Global Cuisine

On the Basement 3 level of Ginza Sony Park is a casual dining spot called Nibun no Ichi, which spotlights "yoshoku". It's a distinctive genre of Japanese food that evolved from Western dishes, reinterpreted to suit Japanese tastes ? like Napolitan spaghetti and omurice, both of which are quite difficult to find in the West.  Since yoshoku is considered a local specialty in Ginza, Nibun no Ichi aims to make it into a casual dining option that can be enjoyed in a park, in a pleasant atmosphere that recalls a dining space in an art museum or gallery. Everything is served in half-portions, making it a perfect stop for a quick recharge ? or, alternatively, a place where you can order several dishes and try them all.

https://www.sonypark.com/e/activity/005/

Instead of housing traditional storefronts and retail spaces, Ginza Sony Park will host a series of rotating events and exhibitions, promising an entirely new experience with each visit. Tokyo is ever-changing.  So is Ginza Sony Park.

Learn more about the Ginza Sony Park at its website, Instagram and X.

• Ginza Sony Park Overview

Location: 5-3-1, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Floor Structure: Five above-ground floors; four basement floors
   (Fourth basement floor includes machine rooms and so on.)
Site Area: 707.42 ?
Total Floor Area: 4,357.49 ? *
Height: 33.9m *
Design: Ginza Sony Park Project
Completion Date: August 15, 2024
Web: https://www.sonypark.com/

• About "Ginza Sony Park Project"

The Ginza Sony Park Project is a project to reconstruct the Sony Building, which was built on the concept of providing a public space, and has had an over 50-year history as part of the city of Ginza.

The Sony Building was created in 1966 by Akio Morita, one of the founders of Sony.

It was a 33-square meter public space that epitomized the concept of providing a public space, which Morita called the "Garden of Ginza." In an effort to carry on our founder's vision for the next 50 years, we implemented a project that would turn this space into a place that creates new rhythm in the Ginza district, which visitors can easily enter and enjoy in various ways, by expanding the "Garden of Ginza" into a "Park of Ginza."

Reconstruction of the building was also based on a new unprecedented two-phase process that was designed to be unique and distinctly Sony. The first phase was a one-of-a-kind experiment in which the site would be turned into a park in the process of being demolished (August 2018 to September 2021), instead of the new building being constructed immediately. The results were that the park received 8.54 million visitors in its approximately three-year existence, which partially included the COVID-19 pandemic.

After this was the second phase, in which demolition and the construction of the new building were resumed. Construction for Ginza Sony Park?the project's final form?was completed in August 2024, and its grand opening is scheduled for Sunday January 26, 2025.

Sony Park Official Website / SNS
Web?https://www.sonypark.com/e/
Instagram?https://www.instagram.com/ginzasonypark/
X?https://x.com/ginzasonypark/
Facebook?https://facebook.com/ginzasonypark/
YouTube?https://youtube.com/ginzasonypark/
@ginzasonypark #GinzaSonyPark

SOURCE Sony Group Corporation