Roppongi Hills

The concept for Roppongi Hills is the “cultural heart of Tokyo.” We believe that a city with only a thriving economy but no culture will never attract people from around the world. For this reason, we created a “compact city” that seamlessly integrates diverse functions including work, residence/living, commercial/retail, relaxation, recreation, and education, with the aim of balancing and harmonizing the economy and a culturally enriched city life.

The “cultural heart of Tokyo” that Mori Building created is a city-within-a-city that provides the space, opportunities, and time to enable residents, workers, and shoppers to easily experience art from around the world, learn from the top talent, and interact with driven people. This concept is epitomized in the cultural hub established on the top floors of Mori Tower in the heart of Roppongi Hills, which features an art museum, gallery, members-only club, and other facilities. Roppongi Hills also boasts a wide range of cultural facilities including a movie theater and broadcasting center, and the entire development is decorated with public art and street furniture. In addition, a large number of cultural events are held year round. It is a place where new things are constantly happening; new knowledge, creations, and possibilities are always emerging; and information is disseminated. Roppongi Hills drives the times and continues to grow.

The Roppongi 6-chome district was a district centered on TV Asahi with an approximately 17m gradient on the south side, a road just under four meters wide running through it, and a high concentration of wooden houses, small apartments and condominiums.
In November 1986, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government designated this district a “redevelopment inducement area” and Mori Building Co., Ltd. and TV Asahi (Asahi National Broadcasting Co., Ltd.) began to call for a redevelopment. Subsequently, approximately 500 rights holders in the district established a preparatory organization for implementation of the project, the Redevelopment Preparatory Association. In April 1995, the “city plan” for a category 1 urban redevelopment project was decided and in 1998 the Redevelopment Association was established. After approval was granted for the ownership transfer plan, we were able to begin construction in 2000, a full 15 years after the redevelopment inducement area designation was made.
Finally, approximately 400 of the rights holders in the district, 80% of the original number, participated in the project. There are no other examples of such a large number of rights holders participating in a project.

Located to the southwest of Roppongi Station on the Hibiya subway line, Roppongi Hills is the largest private-sector redevelopment project in Japan. It occupies an approximately 11 hectare site (excluding Roppongi Hills Gate Tower) and boasts a total floor area of approximately 760,000m².
We have contributed to transportation in the wider area by developing side roads that connect to Roppongi Dori (Radial Road No. 22) and Ring Road No. 3, and developing area trunk roads (Keyakizaka) connecting TV Asahi Dori and Ring Road No. 3 from east to west.
We have also created a safe and comfortable pedestrian space by developing Metro Hat and linking it directly to Roppongi Station on the subway via an underground passage, developing 66 Plaza, developing pedestrian walkways traveling north and south and east and west, separating pedestrian areas from vehicle areas, and eliminating level differences with elevators and escalators. We preserved the lake and green areas from the Mori Mansion that was on the site before the redevelopment, and developed parks and plazas, making half of the site open space, thus creating a city space rich in greenery and water.

Roppongi Hills is a multipurpose city combining “living, working, playing, resting, studying and creating” in an area of approximately 12 hectares, based on the concept of a “Tokyo cultural center.” It contains offices, residences, retail facilities, cultural facilities, a hotel, a cinema complex, a broadcasting center and more.
Fusing art and intelligence, Roppongi Hills is known as the “Artelligent City.” It attracts people from around the world, and the exchanges between different cultures generate new culture and information.
* Roppongi Hills is the biggest private-sector urban redevelopment project in Japan. After the Roppongi 6-chome district was designated a “redevelopment inducement area” by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 1986, it took the involvement of approximately 400 landowners and 17 years to complete.

Before being redeveloped, the site of Roppongi Hills was an area with sprawling wooden low-rise housing built close together and narrow roads, making it difficult for firetrucks and other emergency vehicles to enter. Therefore, one of our key goals was to redevelop the area into a place where people could live safely and with peace of mind. To achieve this goal, we not only rebuilt buildings into earthquake proof structures, but also established a safe urban infrastructure, which included improving the transportation network of the entire area and separating pedestrian and vehicle traffic. We built wide roads and broad open spaces by integrating the subdivided areas and consolidating the scattered buildings into a super high-rise building.
Furthermore, we established our own energy plant that can provide a stable supply of electricity during an emergency and put together the largest stockpile of supplies in the private sector, capable of handling 5,000 stranded people. We also carry out a variety of hard and soft initiatives to ensure that Roppongi Hills is a place to escape to not from in the event of an earthquake or other disaster. One example is the regular disaster drills held by the residents’ association, which is made up of residents and people working at Roppongi Hills. These visionary initiatives received high acclaim during the Great East Japan Earthquake, and our business continuity plan has earned a high level of trust.

Lush greenery is essential for a city. As part of our urban development efforts to ensure the harmonious coexistence of cities and nature, we have worked to expand greens spaces at Roppongi Hills. We have actively pursued urban greening. Examples include creating a green space that stretches outward from Mohri Garden and building a garden with a rice paddy field on the roof of the Keyakizaka Complex. The green spaces are also used for community activities such as rice cultivation in the rice paddy field by locals.
Today the premises of Roppongi Hills are filled with lush greenery. It has a green coverage ratio of around 31%—about 1.4 times that of the average ratio of Minato-ku (as of 2022). These green spaces have a surface temperature 5˚C to 15˚C lower than the surrounding asphalt paved roads, so they also contribute to the mitigation of the heat island phenomenon.
We have also carried out initiatives to help achieve a decarbonized society. For example, in 2019 we started supplying renewable energy to tenants in Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, making us the first office leasing company in Japan to do so.

As a symbol of the Roppongi Hills’ “cultural heart of Tokyo” concept, a cultural hub was established on the top floors (49th floor to 53rd floor) of Mori Tower in the heart of the development, which includes the Mori Art Museum, a members-only club, and a gallery. This is an embodiment of our philosophy—that in light of the global transformation from industrial to knowledge and information societies, culture and the arts is more important than economic power to create “magnetism” for a city. Works of art are displayed throughout the development, with the aim of creating an enriching community where residents and workers can experience and enjoy art and culture. The public art and street furniture specially created for Roppongi Hills by over 20 world-class artists and designers colorfully decorate the development, providing an enjoyable place to walk and playing an active role in the creation of the “cultural heart of Tokyo.”
Wanting to always offer authentic culture through events representing a wide range of genres including art, performance, and music, we invite performers like Strange Fruit and hold Christmas concerts featuring artists from around the world. The LED Christmas lights that has adorned Roppongi Hills since it opened transforms the winter landscape with a then-groundbreaking color scheme of cool colors.
The number of art museums and galleries at Roppongi have grown exponentially since Roppongi Hills opened. Examples include the National Art Center, Suntory Museum of Art, and 21_21 Design Sight. Since 2009, Roppongi has been boosting its magnetism as an art hub for Asia through events such as Roppongi Art Night, a one-night-only art extravaganza that sees around 700,000 visitors.

In recent times there have been concerns that interaction and connections between people in the heart of Tokyo have been getting weaker, and the approaches of area management and town management have been gaining more attention. Like other conscious entities, Roppongi Hills has been emphasizing activities for “the whole city.”
We inaugurated the Roppongi Hills Self-governing Association to promote horizontal cooperation among the various people who come to the complex, cooperate with the town councils in the vicinity, and further promote urban development as the core of community activities. The self-governing association has inherited the infrastructure of the Roppongi 6-chome Area Redevelopment Association, which had led the urban redevelopment project for 17 years, and was launched to newly welcome the residents living in this complex and the shops and businesses, etc. located here.
Objectives of the self-governing association are to strengthen security for the entire complex, including disaster prevention and crime prevention measures, and to form an open-minded community that is only possible in a multipurpose city like Roppongi Hills, where people of different nationalities, occupations, and ages can actively participate in community activities.

We employed international designers suitable for creating a “Tokyo cultural center.”