It is perhaps the beginning of the rebirth of an architectural utopia.
The Nakagin Capsule Tower is expected to be dismantled soon.
A futuristic symbol of Tokyo's Shimbashi district since 1972, this residential building is an assembly of fourteen 10 m2 prefabricated capsules attached to a concrete structure using four bolts.
Some of these cells should be rehabilitated and then transferred to museums or sold.
But the building would not be destroyed, a crowdfunding campaign was launched to restore the other cells.
The work should be carried out by the Chiyoda-ku town planning office.
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One of the inhabitants of the Nakagin Capsule Tower in his room in 2014. YOSHIKAZU TSUNO / AFP
The Nakagin Capsule Tower is originally designed to be renewed every 25 years, yet has not been subject to any renovations due to the cost (estimated at $ 90,000 per capsule) and the complexity of the work related to it. unique architecture of the building.
After failing to find a buyer, the owners decided to dismantle the tower in order to preserve it.
The campaign aims to fund the renovation of capsules that should be donated to museums or sold.
A capsule is already on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Japan and some sources say that the Center Pompidou would also like to acquire one for its permanent collection.
“Aging has been a major problem in recent years,”
said Tatsuyuki Maeda, who owns fifteen capsules to a local newspaper.
“
I was looking for an owner who would leave the building standing while repairing it.
We believe that it is difficult for the association which manages the building to take measures against aging,
”he added.
This building is the first construction of the Metabolic Movement, a group of Japanese architects from the 1970s who imagined the city of the future.
They were inspired by organic biology to think of the large urban cities where a large part of the population was concentrated.
“The Capsule Tower is not just great architecture; like all large buildings, it is the crystallization of a vast cultural ideal. Its existence is also a powerful reminder of the paths not taken, of the possibility of worlds shaped by different standards of values, ”
said former
New York Times
architectural critic
Nicolai Ouroussoff to stress the importance of preserving such a work.
