Image: Hoki Museum, Chiba
TV Tokyo’s 'Cambrian Palace' devoted an August 6 broadcast to Nikken Sekkei, presenting the Japanese architectural firm as a rare large-scale practice with roots stretching back to 1900. According to the program materials, the company began as a temporary 'architectural department' formed for the construction of the Sumitomo Bank headquarters, and has since grown into what the broadcast described as Japan’s largest group of architects, with around 1,000 first-class architects.
The televised feature framed Nikken Sekkei around a long-running emphasis on safety. The program said the firm’s early work set a standard for structural reliability, noting that buildings it designed remained standing after the Great Kanto Earthquake while many surrounding structures were destroyed. That principle, the broadcast suggested, still informs the company’s approach today.
Among the projects highlighted was 'Tokyo Skytree', presented as an emblematic example of the firm’s engineering-minded architecture. The program pointed to the tower’s central 'shinbashira' core, which helps the 634-meter structure withstand major earthquakes. Rather than treating the tower only as a landmark, the segment used it to illustrate Nikken Sekkei’s ongoing interest in safety as a design driver.
The broadcast also widened its focus beyond signature towers and into the firm’s work with clients on architecture tailored to specific local or commercial ambitions. In Hamamatsu, it cited a regional credit union with a fully glass-fronted design intended to keep the building visually open to the street and contribute to the liveliness of the city even after banking hours. The program also referenced the headquarters for Shunkado, the company behind the 'unagi pie' confection, describing it as a building that literally enlarges a table-and-chair motif into architectural form.
A substantial portion of the feature centered on 'Tokyo Midtown', the mixed-use development on the former Defense Agency site in Roppongi. The program said the project marked a major moment in Nikken Sekkei’s shift from designing individual buildings toward shaping urban districts. It identified company president Atsushi Omatsu as the executive who led the development at the time.
According to the broadcast, Omatsu made an unusual decision by commissioning the exterior design of major parts of the project to outside firms, including Tadao Ando, Kengo Kuma and an American design office. The program presented that choice as central to the project’s character, though it did not elaborate beyond asking what the decision meant in the context of Nikken Sekkei’s work.
'Cambrian Palace' aired the segment on August 6, and the related TV Tokyo Plus page said the broadcast was available for viewing on TV Tokyo Biz. The program listed Omatsu as a guest, with Hithomı Kanemaru and Hyadain as MCs, and described the feature as a look at the history, scale and architectural innovation of Nikken Sekkei.
