St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo by Kenzo Tange

St. Mary's Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tokyo. The original structure of 1899 was a wooden building in the Gothic style that was destroyed during the second world war. Kenzo Tange won the competition for the reconstruction of this church in 1961 and with the assistance of Wilhelm Schlombs, architect to the Archdiocese of Cologne, the building was constructed between April 1936 and December 1964.

The plan is in the form of a cross, nothing extraordinary here, instead, what makes this cathedral a monument of modern architecture are the eight curved walls (or hyperbolic faces) which make the structure truly impressing. The exterior is covered with stainless steal and aluminum frames while the interior is bare concrete. The 60 meter high bell tower is like a sharp needle that seems to disappear into the sky.

The spine of the building consists of a series of skylights.

The cubist baptismal