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The Last Days of Tokyo’s Nakagin Capsule Tower
- cody_ellingham 5y agoI published a photobook 'Danchi Dreams' in 2018 that captured the massive Japanese apartment blocks from the same era as Nakagin. The apartment buildings, known as 'danchi', were constructed from the 1960s - 1980s to replace burnt-out cities and house a booming population. Though they might not be quite as spectacular as what the Metabolists dreamed up I think they shared a forward-looking vision for what the modern world could be. http://danchi-dreams.com/ http://danchi-dreams.com/
- DocTomoe 5y agoI was really excited seeing the images, and the book (japanese architecture old and new is something I geek out on), until I realized it's sold out.
- cody_ellingham 5y agoSorry! There was only a small run but I hope to do a second edition one day.
- frxx 5y agoI've known about your book for quite some time, though I don't own it. Nontheless, fantastic photography on the website!
- cody_ellingham 5y agoThank you.
- beyondcompute 5y agoThat looks so good! Can I see more images somewhere? Is electronic version of the book available?
- cody_ellingham 5y agoUnfortunately not at the moment sorry!
- 2ion 5y agoDo you sell a digital edition somewhere?
- cody_ellingham 5y agoNo digital copy sorry!
- loloquwowndueo 5y agoTravelling to the 70s must feel like going to the future: these futuristic capsule buildings existed, supersonic air travel was commonplace, and there were humans travelling to the moon. The epitome of modernity these days is how fast your car videos can load.
- johncalvinyoung 5y agoSadly true, at least in some dimensions. Though as I sit here in my bedroom staring into a massive multipanel array of sharp pixels, attached to a global fiberoptic firehose of information... it feels like a different sort of imagined future came true, though maybe not the best one. All it's missing is VR goggles (never been that interested personally) and hackable wetware.
- rbg246 5y agoHaving a total of 20 supersonic airlines wasn't exactly common place. And spending 1.5% of your GDP to send like ten people to the moon probably isn't that great an achievement from a cost benefit analysis (I know there will be fierce disagreement). Not taking away from how amazing those things are but we have billions of computers that connect most people in the world together which in my opinion just insanely amazing.
- masswerk 5y agoThat these planes were operated only by BA and Air France (and a similar plane to some extent by Aeroflot) was merely an accident. Concorde was developed as a mass transport and there was broad interest. Then the US ban and the oil crisis happened.
- rbg246 5y agoYes but this is my point is there are great reasons why concorde failed but equally it's technology was not enough of progress to overcome the fact that 747s could do things at much greater scale and more economically. The reach of aeroplane travel is far more impressive now than flying under a 100 people at supersonic speeds. I also dispute that there was mass transport plans - the total passenger load was tiny. Not to take away that the plane itself is an amazing piece of technology.
- walrus01 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolism_(architecture) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolism_(architecture)
- nickpinkston 5y agoI hope they at least save a bunch of the capsules and send them to museums around the world. Hell, maybe someone could buy all of them as a marketing gimmick like the London Bridge.
- Valkhyr 5y agoDamn. I love that building. One of these days I need to cycle there on an early morning to take some more pictures before it ultimately disappears :-/
- teruakohatu 5y agoIt reminds me of Canada's Habitat 67, which is also made up of prefabricated concrete rooms and sealed bathroom units. Designed as cheap housing for the future, it is now luxery housing but residents have to put up with similar problems such as a pipe burst in one apartment causes major problems. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67
- GekkePrutser 5y agoIn the Netherlands they use converted shipping containers as student housing. Also stacked fairly randomly and in different colours. Looked really cool. There was one such complex nearby where I lived. But it didn't turn out well, because of the cheap and fairly indestructible accomodations, the rental agencies filled these up with 'problematic' tenants rather than students and it turned into a slum pretty quickly. The best place in town to get drugs or get stabbed. Eventually it was dismantled obviously. It was a good idea, but stupid management.
- fhbfjgdjbc 5y agoIt's been tried in a lot of places. There are many problems with the idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_container_architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_container_architectur...
- Aeolun 5y agoI used to live in something similar to a converted container [1], but designed as housing (also in the Netherlands), we didn’t have any such problems, and the containers were still going strong when they were removed to make space for new developments. I’m still nostalgic for that space. It was my first experience living alone, and a great one at that. [1]: http://www.tombrands.nl/Spaceboxen_gemeente_Apeldoorn/mini-47.jpg http://www.tombrands.nl/Spaceboxen_gemeente_Apeldoorn/mini-4...
- gimmeThaBeet 5y agoI always really loved how Habitat 67 looked, whatever practicality issues aside hah. I also really love The Interlace in Singapore, but I have no idea how you could be expected to navigate it if you are unfamiliar. I wonder how it is for service providers etc to find units. The layout when you see it from above makes more sense, but only slightly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interlace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interlace
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kibwen 5y agoA fantastic article from the last time this topic came up: https://failedarchitecture.com/2014/06/a-year-in-the-metabolist-future-of-1972/ https://failedarchitecture.com/2014/06/a-year-in-the-metabol... It goes over the history of the tower, the experience of the author living there, and has better shots of the interiors featuring a variety of tenants.
- CiceroCiceronis 5y agoMetabolism (the architectural movement that underpinned the Capsule Tower) fascinates me because of its grand scope, one that sought to build an entire society that would suit the needs of the modern person. A building like the Capsule Tower was only a small part of a totalising vision which included ideas for reimagining the Tokyo Bay with vast arcologies. For those interested in Metabolism a fascinating book on the subject is Rem Koolhaas’ “Project Japan - Metabolism Talks” from Taschen. I’ve only just begun to read it and the level of detail is illuminating.
- Aeolun 5y agoThe lowest price I can find is $155 on Amazon. Is there any place I can still find this book?
- CiceroCiceronis 5y agoMy copy is from a library. But you should still be able to buy it for $60USD on the Taschen website. https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/architecture/all/06769/facts.koolhaas_obrist_project_japan_metabolism_talks.htm https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/architecture/all/...
- rodgerd 5y agoI think that "It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the metabolists failed because the buildings they produced weren’t metabolic enough to cope with the ever-changing needs of the city’s inhabitants. Surely, preservation of their work as some kind of cultural relic would be the last thing that the young radicals of the late ’60s and early ’70s would have wanted." is the key quote. I'm sad to see an interesting building go, but it seems like a failed experiment, rather than a monument that should be preserved.
- Tade0 5y agoTheir legacy are modern-day "Microapartments", which on average are not much larger than those capsules.
- Angostura 5y agoFrom the article, it seem like the main failure was in execution. The pods were designed to be replaceable, swapped out regularly as needs changed. In practice, swapping out a single pod was impossible, due to the construction. For some reason, I'm really sad to see this go. I remember it being all over the UK media when I was a kid.
- WJW 5y agoI think that > swapped out regularly as needs changed was the key design mistake, because it glosses over the fact that people get attached to things for sentimental reasons. Even if it were easier to swap out pods, I bet that some people would stubbornly remain in their older pods "because it is the pod I grew up in" for example. Designers in all sorts of fields (even software) often fall for this fallacy, because it would just be so much more elegant if humans conformed to your vision for the world instead of the other way around.
- Angostura 5y agoBut that was the point. Nostalgic folk could keep their pods. Others could go for an 'upgrade'
- doggodaddo78 5y agoWhen you design for architectural and humanist ideals only, but don't design for maintenance or renovation, then any claims of renovation, renewal, or timelessness are moot, wishful, unattained aspirations. Practicality first, then form, because a building in a high-value area has to be fundamentally useful or it becomes a spectacle, art, and/or blight.
- Aeolun 5y agoI guess originally it was not a high value area.
- sonar_un 5y agoTo me, this building is made famous by Transport Tycoon, and I am so sad to see the end.
- xyzal 5y agoThis! I tried hard to recall just why this building seems so familiar ...
- nicolas_t 5y agoI always wanted to stay in the airbnb from that building to actually feel what it would be like to live there. What stopped me though is the fact that there's asbestos and that the conditions of the capsule were bad enough that I could end up inhaling some asbestos. How much of a concern is that really? You hear such horror stories about Asbestos but given how widely used it was and how little care was taken to demolish certain buildings in countries like China, I would expect a lot more people affect with Mesothelioma if all it took were a few fibers finding their way into people's lungs? So for anyone with the medical knowledge, was that a valid concern of mine or just a paranoia that prevented me from experiencing a building I've always been fascinated with before its disappearance?
- ekianjo 5y agoAsbestos is mainly a concern in particulate form and therefore more for construction workers. Staying one night will have no impact on your health.
- tinus_hn 5y agoAsbestos is a game of chance. While of course there’s plenty of chance nothing will happen there’s also a small chance one fiber gets loose and ends up in a bad place and causes you to die a pretty miserable death.
- WJW 5y agoThis is like saying that puddles are a game of chance because you could spontaneously faint when standing close to them and drown. It is theoretically not impossible, but it is also not a risk that you should be worrying about in your daily life. Asbestos is an extremely stable compound, which is the entire reason it was being used as fire resistant material.
- GuB-42 5y agoTrue, you can also get struck by lightening on your way to the room, the asbestos may also save your life from a fire. Everything is a game of chance. You can quantify your chances of dying with micromorts, it is a good way to put things into perspective. Dying of cancer because you spend a night in a capsule containing asbestos is, I believe, so ridiculously low that you might as well worry about being killed by a dog swimming with a gun in his mouth when you go to the beach. I mean, unless you are doing things like taking an angle grinder to the capsule, something the owner might object to. Really, asbestos is mostly an occupational hazard. Once it is in place, the risks are low.
- mooseling 5y agoThis reminds me of Jacques Tati's wonderful film, Mon Oncle (1958). There's a residential house with many similarities to the Nakagin Capsule Tower, and it has so much personality that it's almost a character in itself. Tati gets as much comedy out of its silly, "forward-looking" design as he can, and he contrasts it excellently with an equally ridiculous old house in the centre of the village.
- myspy 5y agoWhat a coincidence. Just read yesterday about it in the Monocle book of Japan and that it will be either teared down or preserved depending on the votes among the owners.
- beyondcompute 5y agoWhy “bizzare”? And what is “Logan’s Run”? That building is absolutely breathtaking! It’s maybe my favorite structure on the planet. And it would be so cool if it got rebuilt (without the asbestos)! By the way, I really enjoyed this documentary: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/nakagincapsuletower https://vimeo.com/ondemand/nakagincapsuletower
- FuriouslyAdrift 5y agoLogan's Run: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film) 1976 dystopian fiction. It had a look and feel that matches up with this architecture.
- beyondcompute 5y agoThanks for your reply but it was more of a rhetorical question! :)
- beyondcompute 5y agoWould be very interesting to learn why this was downvoted. I am somewhat loosing faith in humanity recently. If people express their negative feelings towards someone who thanks another person and is politely trying to clarify his previous message, I am not sure what future do we all have.