Nakagin capsule tower to be dismantled in Tokyo

The Nakagin Tower, which was built in 1972 by architect Kisho Kurokawa, will be disassembled into capsules. Some of them will appear in museums in Japan and abroad.

Ekaterina Karpukhina

Tokyo plans to disassemble the Nakagin capsule tower into modules. Some cells will be restored and transferred to museums, including the Pompidou Center in Paris, and the rest will be sold.

The discussion of the demolition of the building began a long time ago: back in 2007, local residents voted for the dismantling of the tower, and later the question was raised about the “precarious state of the structure and its incompatibility with current seismic standards.”

House of Legend: Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo

But the tower will not be destroyed. The capsules will be restored to perfect condition by the Kisho Kurokawa Architectural Bureau and the Chiyoda-ku Urban Design Bureau. Funds for reconstruction have already begun to be collected on a crowdfunding platform.

The capsule tower appeared in Tokyo in 1972 and was an ideal example of the architecture of metabolism. Adherents of this movement perceived the city as a living organism that changes and renews over time. Therefore, the modules of this house were removable and attached to the main core with only four bolts.

Thus, even after the analysis, the project will continue to function, but in a modified form, which marks the adaptive spirit of metabolism.

Photo: Getty Images

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