Tokyo's historic Nakagin Capsule Tower to be demolished

Good. It really is an eyesore.

Typical Japan: tear everything interesting down, replace it with something uglier and more generic.

"sore" is in the eye of the beholder Alan (today 07:09)

One of the ugliest buildings I’ve ever seen. No wait, I saw something even uglier in the Philippines!

I do wonder what Kurokawa would think of the demolition. It's an interesting building but the design is highly derivative and not particularly ground breaking. The design itself hasn't been adaptable either and I can only imagine that fascination is confined to fans of the man.

Compared to say Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation (which has had many modern adaptations), this is obsolete in almost every way except as a collector's iitem.

Is there a market for the indivudual capsules to be re-adapted as tiny homes?

Hopefully whatever takes its place will be worthy of public commendation . . . .

Abroad in Japan made docu about it.

I really wish to have picture of it in the background. It's one of a kind. I'm sure some fans will make similar building somewhere else in Japan.

I always thought it was a sad attempt at copying Habitat 67

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67

Nakagin Tower lives forever in the world of Minecraft. Or Legos.

Was this picture originally meant to be an amusing shot of a Japanese guy catching a gaijin urinating in public, that just happens to have the building in the background?

My 4 year old daughter thinks it’s a big laundromat for “all of Tokyo’s clothes”.

Is the foreigner wearing a mask in public?

Interesting design in the brutalist architectural style - which is very much love-it-or-hate-it.

Sad I guess to see them levelled, but you can't stop progress I'm afraid. That's some pricey real estate.

Don't know why but I got a Godzilla/Ultraman movie vibe from this picture.

Would be nice if they replace it with something interesting.

As much as I detest modernist architecture when it treats humans as "living machines" and homes as "machines for living", there's something charming about the interiors of these capsules. They feel like something out of the first Star Wars movie, like the Tantive IV.

Unfortunate, a great symbol of Tokyo architecture, I hope that the remains are used as a museum..

The important thing is that Tokyo continues to change and renew itself to continue being one of the best cities in the world..

GO TOKYO!!..

I saw the destruction of interesting architecture over two decades ago in China, replaced by ugly concrete tiles. Then recently I watched the destruction of traditional Kyoto architecture, replaced by ugly concrete tiles. I guess Tokyo is catching up…

I thought it was an unsightly stack of used air-conditioning units at first glance.

Ego Sum Lux Mundi

I thought it was an unsightly stack of used air-conditioning units at first glance.

lol, Now I can't un-see that.

Somewhat sad to see it go. No less of an eyesore than all the other unfinished concrete, power lines and people’s forgotten ‘washables’ left on terraces for days.

Liked that child’s idea of a big coin laundry.

My 4 year old daughter thinks it’s a big laundromat for “all of Tokyo’s clothes”.

Haha, adorable :)

Take some 3D scans of it, put the scans in some 3D tour museum, create a plaque nearby with a QR code and be done with it. Don't waste a large plot of land for some historical sake unless it really plays a huge role in history.

I stayed the night there 8 years ago.

And only because nothing else was available.

It was disgusting dirty ,moldy and reaked of tobacco smoke.

That building is in the wolverine movie.

A real mold lovers paradise.

The building make look futuristic and cool but however its more of a recipe for disaster than a ingenious marvel of engineering expertise.

Any junk from that "only" 50 year old monstrosity doesn't deserve to be in a museum

They should scatter those things around Ueno Park for all the bums.

Its legacy will live on in the hundreds of capsule hotels around Japan. (Also a Kurokawa brainstorm.)

Thank God for that. An absolute eyesore, but then again, so is 95% of all cities in Japan.

When was the last time have we seen art being appreciated, admired, or even saved here??

SAD, everything and anything is disposable in Japan.

That will be an expensive demolition considering the asbestos in the building.