Nakagin Capsule Tower: Can Tokyo's urban utopian dream secure a new lease on life?
The future of Ginza's iconic building hangs in the balance as architectural enthusiasts attempt to preserve the fading landmark.
Fate of Tokyo's famed Nakagin Capsule Tower to be decided soon
The fate of Tokyo's famed Nakagin Capsule Tower is set to be decided as early as autumn, attracting attention from home and abroad on whether the building and its unique exterior will be kept or scrapped. Currently, a foreign company is holding negotiations on acquiring ...
Downsized dwellings: Inside Tokyo's tiny living spaces
Twenty-five-year-old Sotaro Ito lives in a 9.46-square-meter apartment with a loft in the capital's retro-hip Koenji district. His apartment looks more like an office cubicle, with a desk and computer chair dominating a third of the room. A reading pillow is propped up against one ...
'Contemporary Japanese Architects' lays down the foundations of Japanese design
From World War II to the Great East Japan Earthquake, Japanese architects have pushed the boundaries of art, architecture and design.
Recurring views of Tokyo's utopian dream
When the Nakagin Capsule Tower opened in Tokyo in 1972, it embodied the energy and optimism of Japan's postwar boom. Considered architect Kisho Kurokawa's opus, its completion was also a major moment in the development of metabolism, the much publicized Japanese avant-garde architectural movement ...
Iki Island: the stones and stories that keep paradise from floating away
Legend has it that many years ago the pretty little island of Iki was not connected to the seafloor. Instead, it floated around at the whim of the currents, presumably bobbing back and forth between Japan, China and the Korean Peninsula. Imagine what a nightmare ...
Arata Isozaki: astonishing by design
If the entire Japanese architectural fraternity was one big royal family, then Arata Isozaki would be a king approaching the end of a long and glorious reign. The "pedigree" of this majestically silver-maned 76-year-old is, quite simply, faultless. Architecturally speaking, Isozaki's "father" was the great Kenzo ...
Late architect Kisho Kurokawa's mecca built on philosophy
Not many people get to build cities and choose prime ministers, yet that was his claim to fame. In one of the last interviews before his death on Oct. 12, self-styled leader of the Symbiosis movement Kisho Kurokawa talked about the ups and downs ...
