Hotel Sofitel Tokyo
Hotel Sofitel Tokyo was a hotel high-rise building in Taito-ku, Tokyo. It was established in 1994 as Hotel Cosima with 71 rooms on 26 cantilever floors. In 1999 it was purchased by Accor Group. After a brief refurbishment it was reopened as 4-star hotel in September 2000, but was soon closed in December 2006 and was demolished between February 2007 and May 2008.
Hotel Sofitel was a late work of Japanese architect Kiyonori Kikutake, best known for his own pre-metabolist house and the Edo-Tokyo Museum. The Hotel Sofitel building resembled some metabolist ideas. The building shows a direct similarity to Kikutake's earlier theoretical project from 1968. However, this project consisted of a group of towers cross-shaped in the plan, and also shows a similarity to other metabolists projects such as the Nakagin Capsule Tower by Kisho Kurokawa and the Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Tower by Kenzo Tange.
It is said that the characteristic shape of the hotel building was inspired by the shapes of Japanese temples and pine trees. Despite some metabolist-like features the building itself cannot be seen as representative of the metabolist movement as it was designed long after the slow breakup of the metabolist groups in the late 1970s. The object referenced traditional Japanese architecture, which is characteristic of Kikutake's mature and late works.