architektura: Nakagin Capsule Tower

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The Nakagin Capsule Tower Building was a mixed-use residential and office tower in the upscale Ginza district of Tokyo, Japan, designed by the architect Kisho Kurokawa. Completed in two years (1970–1972), the building was a rare remaining example of Japanese Metabolism, an architectural movement emblematic of Japan's postwar cultural resurgence. It was the world's first example of capsule architecture. In time, however, the Capsule Tower fell into disrepair. Attempts to raise funds to save the Tower and campaigns to preserve it as a historic landmark were unsuccessful. The building was demolished in 2022, although 23 component units were earmarked for preservation and later repurposed elsew…

Evidence: 67 • authority: 88

The real reason why Nakagin Capsule Tower was never metabolized. The first part of this two-part essay is about the Nakagin Capsule Tower restoration and preservation project and discusses the low awareness of the current situation of the building. In part two Showcase Tokyo Architecture tours share survey responses from enthusiastic capsule tower fans on the future of the building.

Evidence: 67 • authority: 72

Metabolism (Japanese: メタボリズム, Hepburn: metaborizumu; also shinchintaisha (新陳代謝)) was a post-war Japanese biomimetic architectural movement that fused ideas about architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth. It had its first international exposure during CIAM's 1959 meeting and its ideas were tentatively tested by students from Kenzo Tange's MIT studio. During the preparation for the 1960 Tokyo World Design Conference, a group of young architects and designers, including Kiyonori Kikutake, Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki, prepared the publication of the Metabolism manifesto. They were influenced by a wide variety of sources, including Marxist theories and biological…

Evidence: 51 • authority: 88

Invisible Infrastructure: Reinforcing Postwar Gender Inequality in Tokyo’s Nakagin Capsule Tower. 1970s Japan saw major changes in the way society lived and worked. A changing family structure, one led by the patriarchal “salaryman,” created new demands for housing. The Nakagin Capsule Tower, completed by architect Kisho Kurokawa in 1972, formerly located in the business district of Shimbashi, Tokyo, Japan, was Kurokawa’s utopian model for Japan’s salarymen. This presentation investigates how the Nakagin Capsule Tower inscribed gendered institutional thought in its construction, restricting women to the home and maintaining male power in the public sphere. Moreover, I explore the relationsh…

Evidence: 51 • authority: 88

Analyzing the Sustainability Potential of Micro Living at the Scale of Interior Architecture: The Nakagin Capsule Tower. Bu çalışma, mikro yaşamın sürdürülebilirlik potansiyelini iç mimarlık ölçeğinde Nakagin Capsule Tower (Nakagin Kapsül Kulesi) örneği üzerinden analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Artan kentleşme, kaynak kısıtlılığı ve çevresel krizler, kompakt yaşam modellerine yönelik ilgiyi artırmış; mikro konut tipolojileri sürdürülebilirlik tartışmaları çerçevesinde yeniden değerlendirilmiştir. Ancak mikro yaşam çoğunlukla mimarlık ve kent planlama perspektifinden ele alınmakta, iç mekân organizasyonu, entegre donatı sistemleri ve modüler tasarım kararları üzerinden sürdürülebilirlik analiz…

Evidence: 51 • authority: 72

Japanese architecture (日本建築, Nihon kenchiku) has been typified by wooden structures, elevated slightly off the ground, with tiled or thatched roofs. Sliding doors (fusuma) and other traditional partitions were used in place of walls, allowing the internal configuration of a space to be customized for different occasions. People usually sat on cushions or otherwise on the floor, traditionally; chairs and high tables were not widely used until the 20th century. Since the 19th century, however, Japan has incorporated much of Western, modern, and post-modern architecture into construction and design, and is today a leader in cutting-edge architectural design and technology. The earliest Japanes…

Evidence: 51 • authority: 72

The Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center is a building located in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan. Built in 1967, it is considered to be the first realization of Kenzo Tange's Metabolist movement, which called for a new urban typology that could self-perpetuate in an organic, "metabolic" way. It was built on a 189 square metres (2,030 sq ft) triangular site, and erected around a column, 7.7 metres (25 ft) in diameter, which forms the building's central core, and around which thirteen individual offices are connected asymmetrically. The building was meant to be a prototype for a perpetually regenerating, prefabricated urban megastructure. It was designed with the intention that the space between the o…