Vertical Garden City

The “compact city” is Mori Building’s ideal city, one that consolidates diverse urban functions and connects every aspect of human life within walking distance, namely: living, working, learning, playing, interacting, and relaxing. It took 50 years of trial and error to turn this ideal into reality—a unique method we developed called “vertical garden city.” The method consists of incorporating diverse urban functions in vertical layers and making use of the space above and belowground by integrating broad areas of subdivided plots of land and consolidating buildings into high-rises.

The concept encompasses more than just turning buildings into high-rises. Building high-rises allows us to increase the amount of greenery by creating vast open spaces, resulting in an urban environment that is in harmony with nature. This method also makes effective use of the space belowground, which previously tended to be neglected. The land area in the city center cannot be increased, but the space above and below can be.

Of course, you cannot create enriching lifestyles by just adding more space. Hills developments not only include places to live and work, but also integrate diverse urban functions such as learning, playing, interacting, and relaxing, to provide an enriching city life.

Our goal for building high-rises is to create places in the center of the city filled with lush greenery. Hills developments are environmentally friendly urban complexes that also promote biodiversity with parks and open spaces. Making effective use of urban spaces enable us to preserve the natural landscape of the city’s suburbs and surroundings.

Furthermore, consolidating urban functions vertically decreases travel time for commuting and other purposes and increases free time. It also increases time for relaxation and the number of lifestyle options. A city where everything you need is in walking distance is also good for children and elderly. People with wheelchairs and strollers can get around comfortably and safely.

In addition, integrally developing urban complexes with the transportation infrastructure such as railway and roads make it easier to travel between cities. And using space effectively to widen the distance between buildings and taking seismic reinforcement measures result in an city structure that is resilient to disasters.