Daikanyama Hillside Terrace: Fumihiko Maki's Thirty-Year Masterwork

Why is it significant?

Stroll along the elegant pedestrian walkways of Daikanyama Hillside Terrace, an internationally celebrated masterpiece of modern urban architecture.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stroll along the elegant pedestrian walkways of Daikanyama Hillside Terrace, an internationally celebrated masterpiece of modern urban architecture. Designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Fumihiko Maki for the Asakura family, this mixed-use complex of low-rise white concrete pavilions, residential lofts, art galleries, and cafes was constructed in six distinct phases spanning thirty years from nineteen sixty-nine to nineteen ninety-eight.

Rather than building a monolithic high-rise tower, Maki pioneered the concept of 'collective form', creating an intimate, human-scale streetscape that responds to the existing topography and ancient burial mounds on the site. Shaded courtyards, sunken sunken plazas, and glass-fronted boutiques interact with the street, establishing Daikanyama as Tokyo's most sophisticated and walkable neighborhood. Architect Fumihiko Maki devoted three decades to carefully refining the Hillside Terrace master plan, ensuring that each new building phase answered evolving modern lifestyle needs while honoring the tranquil character of the avenue. His thoughtful placement of tree plantings and shaded courtyards buffers city street sounds.

Hidden in Phase Three of the complex sits the Sarugakuzuka, an ancient sixth-century Kofun burial mound covered in lush bamboo and sacred camellias. Maki preserved this prehistoric burial mound as the spiritual and spatial pivot of the modern architectural complex, harmonizing ancient archaeology with minimalist white modernist geometry. The ancient sixth-century Sarugakuzuka burial mound, crowned with sacred evergreen trees and ancient stone monuments, provides a tranquil spiritual sanctuary of timeless silence right in the center of the contemporary design village.

In the basement of Phase Six lies the Hillside Forum, a renowned cultural exhibition gallery where international modern art, architectural retrospectives, and chamber music recitals are hosted throughout the year. Maki's innovative master plan employs recessed courtyards, elevated pedestrian walkways, and gentle ramps to forge a fluid transition between public street life, fashionable artisan boutiques, and private residential lofts.

Walk east across the railway lines toward the former train track promenade of Log Road Daikanyama.