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Metabolic Impermanence: The Nakagin Capsule Tower
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· November 2017
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Inflection Journal
Volume 04 - Permanence
November 2017
Inflection is published annually by the Melbourne School of Design at the
University of Melbourne and AADR: Art Architecture Design Research.
Editors:
Dominic On,
Jessica Wood, Nina Tory-Henderson and Stephen Yuen
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Editorial
Barnaby Bennett
Breaking and
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Kaylene Tan
Unfinished: Brutalist
Heritage in the Making
Tod Williams and Billie Tsien
On Slowness
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Illusions of Freedom
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Dual-Living: The
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On Systems
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Cui Bono
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Tanja Beer*
The Aesthetics of
Impermanence
Eleni Bastéa
The Memory of Loss
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MPavilion: Catalyst
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Aki Ishida
Metabolic Impermanence:
The Nakagin Capsule Tower
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Elizabeth Diller
On Obsolescence
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Future Stock
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The Reassembled Town Hall
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On Imagined Placelessness
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CONTENTS
32
Inflection
Metabolic Impermanence
Aki Ishida
THE NAKAGIN CAPSULE TOWER
METABOLIC
IMPERMANENCE
When a building is designed with intentional impermanence,
its historic preservation presents a paradox. First completed
in 1972, the Nakagin Capsule Tower by Kisho Kurokawa
is such a structure. As
The New York Times
critic Nicolai
Ouroussoff wrote in 2009, ‘The Capsule Tower is not only
gorgeous architecture; like all great buildings, it is the
crystallisation of a far-reaching cultural ideal. Its existence
also stands as a powerful reminder of paths not taken, of
the possibility of worlds shaped by different sets of values.’
1
In the Metabolist spirit of continual growth, the architect
designed the capsule living units to be replaced every 25
to 35 years, whilst the concrete cores were estimated to
last over 60 years.
2
The shorter lifespan of the capsules was
intended to reflect anticipated societal change, rather than
material aging.
3
However, in the 45 years since its completion
no replacement has taken place. Today, the tower faces
the alternatives of preservation, alteration or demolition.
If the design’s central idea has not been executed half a
century later, how do we justify its future, either through
restoration as a cultural monument, or demolition to make
way for new structures and ideologies? Moreover, when a
work of architecture is built upon principles of growth and
transformation over time, what are the implications for its
preservation?
Vol 04 Permanence
33
Nakagin Capsule Tower, Axonometric.
Drawing by © KISHO KUROKAWA architect &
associates
Opposite: Nakagin Capsule Tower, level 5
floor plan.
Drawing by © KISHO KUROKAWA architect &
associates
Following page: Under construction.
Photograph by Tomio Ohashi
© KISHO KUROKAWA architect & associates
