The Nakagin capsule tower was built in 1972 by the Japanese architect Kise Kurokawa. We can say that this is the world's first "capsule" residential building
Japanese photographer Noritaka Minami filmed a building in Tokyo's Ginza district for four years.
Here are some of his photos …
It consists of 140 individual capsule modules containing offices and residential apartments. The capsules are 4 x 2.5 meter blocks, fixed to a concrete frame with just four bolts. Each capsule is a complete living module that can function as a completely separate unit - an independent living space, moreover, the capsules are able to connect to each other. They can be replaced, added, rearranged, thrown out as they wear out.
These capsule modules have everything you need for life: a bed, a table, a bathroom with a toilet, an air conditioner, a TV, a telephone, and so on. The manufacture of these blocks and the interior decoration of the capsules were carried out at a factory in Shiga Prefecture, located 500 km away. from the Nakagin building under construction, and the finished capsules were transported along the highway on special trailers. In place, these capsule blocks were installed only using cranes. Such a process was considered unheard of at that time. At the entrance on the ground floor of the Nakagin Tower, a life-size sample of the capsule was displayed. This space, reminiscent of the inner structure of a spaceship, seemed to the Japanese the embodiment of childhood fantasies about "secret space bases" (from a Japanese children's cartoon).
Promotional video:
Such a unit is easy to replace: they are manufactured at the factory and installed in place using a crane. All necessary communications - elevators, stairs, various pipes and wires are located inside the concrete frame. The house is thirteen floors high.
Nakagin Capsule Tower is a prime example of an architectural style called Metabolism, which originated in Japan and implies modularity, high adaptability, the ability to rebuild the structure and replace its components in accordance with the changing requirements of life.
Metabolism - (French metabolism from the Greek metabole - change) is a trend in the architecture of the middle of the 20th century, which replaced the functionalism of the international style of the 1930-1940s.
The author of Nakagin Capsule Tower - Kisho Kurokawa, in 1960 became one of the founders of the movement of architectural metabolism. This trend immediately gained popularity. Unlike the dominant theory of Le Corbusier at that time (buildings as "cars for housing"), metabolists perceived the city as a living organism with all its inherent processes. They divided it into permanent and temporary elements - bones, blood vessels and living cells, which change over time.
Metabolic architects strove to develop the principles of constructivism according to the concept of "changeable space". The optimal constructive basis of the buildings was combined with combinatorics - variation "cells", due to which the architectural compositions acquired a more varied appearance.
The Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo made Kisho Kurokawa famous all over the world, was recognized as the best work of metabolism and included in the list of world architectural heritage of DOCOMOMO International, and a replica of one of the "capsules" in life size is now visited by numerous tourists.
In 2007, the residents of Nakagin, referring to the cramped conditions and the content of asbestos in the building's structures, voted for its demolition. Wanting to save his creation, Kurokawa proposed a large-scale reconstruction project for the tower. The reconstruction plan was supported by the main architectural associations in Japan, including the Japan Institute of Architecture, but due to the high financial costs, the work never began
After that, most of the residents moved out and abandoned their apartments.
Kisho Kurokawa was born in 1934 in Nagoya and studied in Kyoto and Tokyo. In the 60s, the movement of architectural metabolism, of which Kurokawa was one of the founders, became the last word in architectural thought. In his manifesto, Time of Machines and Time of Life, the young Japanese man argued with Le Corbusier himself, whose concept of the building as a “car for living” was dominant at the time.
Despite the success at the 1970 Osaka International Exhibition, the metabolism group fell apart. But Kurokawa continued to develop her ideas in his creativity and theoretical works. His major works include the Nagoya City Museum, the Osaka Convention Center, the Japan-Germany Center in Berlin, the Melbourne Central Shopping Center in Melbourne, the China-Japan Youth Center in Beijing, Tour Pacifique in the Parisian Defense district, the new Wang Museum building. Goga in Amsterdam, airport in Kuala Lumpur. Kisho Kurokawa also developed master plans for several cities in Asia. Recently, he often visited Kazakhstan, working at the invitation of Nursultan Nazarbayev on the master plan of the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana. Kurokawa's buildings have received many awards in Japan, France, USA, UK, China,his books have won literary prizes more than once - for example, "Philosophy of Symbiosis" was awarded the Japan Grand Prix of Literature.
Since 1962, Kisho Kurokawa has been the head of Kisho Kurokawa - Architect and Employees. The company has its headquarters in Tokyo and branches in Osaka, St. Petersburg, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and California.
Having achieved world recognition and fame in his main profession, Kurokawa also took up social and political activities: he often appeared in the media, founded his own party, ran for governor of Tokyo and for the upper house of the Japanese parliament in the Tokyo constituency.
Kisho Kurokawa also worked in Russia. He participated in the competition for the reconstruction of New Holland in St. Petersburg, in May 2007 he won the competition for the design of a shopping and entertainment center in Yekaterinburg. As one of the members of the jury in the competition for the construction of the Gazprom City administrative center in St. Petersburg, he, along with three other eminent architects, resigned from it in protest against the victory of the "inorganic for St. Petersburg project."
In August 2006, Kurokawa became the creator of the project of the new sports arena of FC Zenit on the site of the stadium named after Kirov in St. Petersburg.
Kisho Kurokawa passed away on October 12, 2007.
Inspired by the ideas of Kisho Kurokawa, a building was erected in Bobruisk (Belarus) in the 70s of the last century. After some time, the tenants got tired of the severe minimalism of Kurokawa's ideas, and took care of the issue of storing stocks of sauerkraut on the balcony. As a result, some architectural excesses not foreseen by Kurokawa's admirers were added to the appearance of the Bobruisk building.
40 years have passed since the construction of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, and the fact that the building is becoming obsolete is a fact. It is worth noting that not a single capsule has been replaced. Apparently, detaching and replacing one capsule is actually not so easy. The company, which manages Nakagin, insisted on the demolition of the building and the construction of a new one. Kurokawa Kisho passed away in 2007, but until recently he argued that all the problems of the Nakagin Tower could be solved by replacing the original capsules. At the councils of the Association of Japanese Architects, many support the preservation of the building, some even believe that the Nakagin Capsule Tower should be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. But nobody knows the further fate of the building.
In 2013, the "Nakagin Capsule Tower" is maintained in a more or less acceptable condition, and recently, a lot of people have been moving in here for a short time. The cost of renting a capsule module per month is attractive, the location of the Nakagin building in the center of Tokyo. At the same time, this building, with its special atmosphere, inspires many to creative activity - perhaps the spirit of Kurokawa Kisho, who challenged the passing era with its values, with its insane fuse, and now hotly excites ideas in the young generation of creative people who have chosen Nakagin Capsule Tower as their place of residence.
