Azabudai Hills is a new neighbourhood in Tokyo where Japan‘s tallest skyscraper has been designed to withstand a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. The mega-development is hailed as having the feel of a village but with all the requirements of a modern city.

It is due to open in full this year and has a total estimated cost of £3.3billion ($4.2bn). According to the scheme’s backers, the overall aim of Azabudai Hills is to create a city within a city where people can escape to, as opposed to fleeing from, during an earthquake.

Japan is one of the most earthquake prone countries in the world, with some 1,500 striking the country annually, although most are not strong enough to be felt.

A series of powerful quakes struck the west coast of Japan in Janury, killing dozens and reducing buildings to rubble.

Meanwhile, Japan marked the 13th anniversary of the huge earthquake and tsunami which triggered a nuclear meltdown and left large parts of Fukushima prefecture uninhabitable with a minute’s silence and memorial events on Monday (March 11).

The 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami ravaged parts of Japan’s northeastern coast on March 11, 2011, killing about 20,000 people and driving thousands from their homes in the prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima.

At 2.46pm local time — the point when the earthquake struck — people across Japan stopped to observe a minute’s silence. In Tokyo’s central Ginza shopping district, people stopped to pray on the sidewalk as a bell rang out, marking the moment.

Besides Azabudai Hills being designed to provide a “safe” place to flee to during earthquakes, it is also home to Japan’s first “super tall” skyscraper.

Soaring to 1,067 feet (330m), Azabudai Hills’ Mori JP Tower, is Japan’s tallest skyscraper, having surpassed former record holder, the Abeno Harukas Tower in Osaka by 83 feet.

Designed by British architect Thomas Heatherwick’s London based Heatherwick Studio, Azabudai hills was completed last year after more than 30 years of planning.

It has enough office space to accommodate 20,000 workers, art galleries, shops, a medical centre and 1,400 homes.

In a park at the base of Mori JP Tower sits a 16m-high canopy dubbed The Cloud, which has intricate looping shapes inspired by paper quilling, where rolls of paper are formed into decorative designs.

Mr Heatherwick, commenting on the new neighbourhood, told Wallpaper magazine in November: “We’ve learnt many lessons. And we are now even more convinced of the small scale and the importance of the district, rather than the building.”