Installation by Cheng Tsung FENG reimagines Roppongi’s skyline
For Roppongi Art Night 2025, Taiwanese artist Cheng Tsung FENG presents Sailing Castle: Roppongi, a site-specific wooden installation located at Tenso Shrine, one of the district’s most historic sites with a 641-year legacy. The work continues FENG’s Sailing Castle series, initiated at the Taiwan Lantern Festival in 2019, and marks its sixth iteration.
The installation takes form from the outlines of Roppongi’s iconic architecture, including the National Art Center Tokyo, Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo Midtown, 21_21 Design Sight, Mori Tower, Sumitomo Roppongi Grand Tower, and Roppongi Crossing. These profiles are abstracted, merged, and reassembled into a singular timber structure that reflects both the city’s urban identity and the traditional craft techniques used in its making.
all images by FIXER Photographic Studio
Modular Timber and canvas Composition forms Sailing Castle
FENG’s Sailing Castle series explores the relationship between architecture, memory, and cultural symbolism. Each work interprets a city’s skyline as a collection of sails gathered in a harbor, structures that both anchor and move through time. In Sailing Castle: Roppongi, this concept is materialized through a framework of interwoven wooden components, where light and shadow define the contours of the city’s silhouette.
The installation’s structural composition recalls boat-building logic and shrine carpentry, integrating modular joints and rhythmic layering. Its lighting scheme transforms the wooden framework into a glowing form that shifts between visibility and transparency, inviting viewers to perceive Roppongi’s architecture as a fluid and collective identity. Through this installation, the artist establishes a dialogue between urban memory and ritual space, positioning Sailing Castle: Roppongi as both a temporary monument and a reflection on how architectural form can become a vessel for shared cultural narratives.
Sailing Castle: Roppongi by Cheng Tsung FENG at Tenso Shrine
wooden installation reinterprets Roppongi’s architectural silhouettes
site-specific work created for Roppongi Art Night 2025
timber framework reinterprets Roppongi’s urban skyline
outlines of iconic landmarks merge into a single wooden form
profiles of Roppongi’s architecture are abstracted and reassembled
interwoven wooden components evoke both sails and skyline.
light and shadow define the structure’s changing silhouette
boat-building logic and shrine carpentry inform its construction
modular joints and rhythmic layering shape the installation’s form
a lighting scheme transforms the structure from solid to translucent
the glowing timber framework creates a dialogue between past and present
the illuminating installation forms intricate shadow patterns on the ground
FENG interprets the city’s skyline as a harbor of gathered sails
project info:
name: Sailing Castle: Roppongi
artist: Cheng Tsung FENG | @chengtsungfeng
location: Tokyo, Japan
project designer: Chan Wei HSU, Chen PENG
structural analysis: Chien Chuan Engineering Consulting Co.
woodwork: Weige Interior Design
metalwork: Yichang Laser
canvas: Meichiangkuang Advertising
lighting design: Oude Light
lighting engineer: Beamtec Lighting
international shipping: Cheng-hang Global Logistics CO., Ltd.
assembly support: Chung Sheng HSU, Kuan Chen CHEN
photographer: FIXER Photographic Studio | @fixer_photographic_studio
organizer: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo Arts Committee (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture), Minato City, Roppongi Art Night Executive Committee (The National Art Center Tokyo, Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo Midtown, 21_21 Design Sight, Mori Art Museum, Mori Building, Ractive Roppongi）
co-organizer: Agency of Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, MCST Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea, Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, Korea Embassy, Korean Cultural Center, Ministry of Culture Taiwan
designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.
edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom
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