Inside Nakagin Capsule Tower
I recently had the great opportunity to take a look inside the Nakagin Capsule Tower apartment building, the icon of Japanese Metabolism that was completed in 1972 and designed by Kisho Kurokawa.
A friend of mine knows the person renting out a capsule room on Airbnb.com, and graciously let me have a look when it was vacant between guests. By the way, if you are interested in staying the night in the room you can find it listed here. Masato, the fellow who rents out the room, is doing an admirable job of making this otherwise inaccessable place available to all who are interested.
As I read in articles before, the building is indeed in terrible disrepair. If there is any hope of the building being renovated and preserved for the future, there will indeed have to be significant financial backing. Apparently many of the unit owners woud love to see the building saved from the wrecking ball, unfortunately there has been no plan yet to convince them of the benfits of keeping the building standing.
Lobby interior with original mailboxes.
Images of the bedroom unit interior. The storage console is surprising intact, it even looks like they are usng the original Sanyo refridgerator!
Photos from the roof. The water damage is pretty significant.
Details of where the concrete connection crom which the capsules cantilever.
View from the podium roof on the third floor.
Unfortunately there is no running hot water for the residents. The entire building uses this ONE outdoor shower room located off the lobby.
