In the city
of Tokyo, a building stands as an anachronism in relation to the surrounding
landscape. The building in question is the Nakagin Capsule Tower designed by
Kisho Kurokawa (1934 – 2007), one of the leading members of an experimental
architectural movement in the 1960s called Metabolism. This prototype for life
in the 21st Century ultimately proved to be an exception rather than the rule,
as the first capsule tower became the last completed in the world. Today, the
building faces the threat of demolition to make way for a conventional
apartment complex. This photographic series captures the building as it faces
an uncertain fate. Noritaka Minami’s work ’1972′ is a ongoing project and a response
to the building’s potential disappearance as a tangible piece of cultural
memory in Tokyo. The camera engages this singular presence within a city and
explores the implications this vision of the future from the past holds for
contemporary society. [1]
Architect Kisho
Kurokawa was very
innovative in his creation of the Nakagin Capsule Tower in 1972, which was the
first capsule architecture design. The module was created with the intention of
housing traveling businessmen that worked in central Tokyo during the week. It
is a prototype for architecture of sustainability and recycleability, as each
module can be plugged in to the central core and replaced or exchanged when
necessary. Completed in 1972, the building is a rare built example of Japanese
Metabolism, a movement that became emblematic of Japan's postwar cultural
resurgence. The building was the world's first example of capsule architecture
built for actual use. The building is still in use as of 2010, but has fallen
into disrepair. As of October 2012, around thirty of the 140 capsules remained
in use as apartments, while others were used for storage or office space, or
simply abandoned and allowed to deteriorate. [2]
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