Nakagin Capsule Tower – Buy The Rights To Rebuild in Real Life or the Metaverse

The iconic Kisho Kurokawa designed Nakagin Capsule Tower was recently demolished. The 50-year-old mixed-use 13-floor modular building located in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan was an example of Japanese Metabolismì and had become a landmark/tourist attraction.

Annoyingly, during my two trips to Japan before the pandemic, I didn’t get around to seeing this iconic building.

Unfortunately, now I never will.

Constructed in just 2 years, with the 140 capsules being fabricated off-site including utilities & fittings and then brought on-site to be secured onto one of the two towers with only 4 high tensile bolts.

Multiple capsules could be connected to create a larger living area.

Originally targeted at Tokyo bachelor salarymen, many of these iconic capsules fell into disrepair over the years, with many being used for storage or office space, with only around 20% of the capsules being used as apartments as of 2012.

Prepandemic it was still possible to rent out a capsule for a night a two to experience this unique futurist building & way of living.

The brilliant 3d model below from Jordon F uploaded to Sketchfab, show’s how the capsule would have looked brand new. It has very sci-fi spaceship/space station vibes about it.

Nakagin Capsule Tower Room (中銀カプセルタワービル) by Jordan F on Sketchfab

After years of arguments & attempts by the remaining residents & fans to fund buying the building. In April 2022 demolition started. Although due to the building’s modular construction, it was more of a deconstruction. With the capsules being easily disconnected from the towers with the hope some of them could be preserved or recycled.

In fact, the Kurokawa Design Office is in discussions with 20 museums around the world to donate these iconic capsules for public exhibition.

However, if you’re a deep-pocketed futurist and want to own the rights to rebuild the Nakagin Capsule Tower in real-life or the Metaverse. Then Kurokawa Design Office is selling the rights.

Via OpenSea, the Kurokawa Design Office is running two auctions. One for the real-life rights and another for the Metaverse rights to rebuild.

The closing date for both auctions is the 20th of October 2022.

To buy the real-life rights click here.

To buy the Metaverse rights click here.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower was futuristic, ahead of its time 50 years ago when it was built. Even now I think it’s still a bit too futuristic. Although, as the world’s population grows & usable land becomes scarce maybe this way of living will catch on.

I could however see the tower rebuilt as an airport hotel. A cheap alternative to a normal hotel for a long layover.

Whatever happens in the future, the Nakagin Capsule Tower graced the already impressive Tokyo skyline for 50 years and became iconic.

It maybe gave us a peek into the future.

To be honest I hope it didn’t.

Take Care

Mike