In the late 1950’s a group of young Japanese architects and city planners joined together to form the Metabolist group. They conceived of cities as living, moving and evolving organisms and therefore the architectural structures within these cities needed to adapt to the changing society. Postwar Japan needed to rebuild Hiroshima and Nagasaki after they were wiped out by atomic bombs. With the widespread housing crisis, the Metabolists focused on designing housing that could accommodate large populations that were primarily plug-in mega structures or prefab modular capsules.
The Nakagin Capsule Tower Building, completed in 1972 is the iconic example from the Metabolist group and also marked the end of the group. It was designed by Kisho Kurokawa and was the world’s first capsule architecture. Kurokawa’s vision was to replace the capsules every 25 years so that the structure could have had a lifespan of 200 years. Sadly, the current owner…
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