so this incredible astonishing looking
building behind me is the nakagin
capsule tower building it is perhaps not
only my favorite building in all of
tokyo but in all of japan and while i'd
like to tell you a happy story about how
next year it's his 50th year anniversary
unfortunately it's future
it's not looking so good
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it may look like jenga with washing
machines but don't be fooled these are
140 tiny capsule apartments
but why was it built what's it like
inside and who's called it home these
past 50 years we're going inside the
necking capsule tower to take a look at
the past present and future of this
incredible building there's nothing else
quite like it there may never be again
and this time next year it may be lost
forever
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tokyo the center of japan both
industrially and politically
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in the 1960s and 70s japan's post-war
economy was experiencing explosive
growth in a period referred to as the
economic miracle the country was
becoming a dominant player in the export
of high-tech electronics and rapid
urbanization was sweeping the country in
1945 50 percent of the nation's
population lived in rural areas but by
1970 that figure was less than 30
percent and tokyo was very much at the
epicentre of the migration
unsurprisingly affordable living space
became increasingly elusive it was
against this backdrop of economic
prosperity and rapid urbanization that a
group of japanese architects birthed the
metabolism movement a design philosophy
that incorporated aspects of organic
biological growth in the same way an
organic life form grows changes and
adapts with its surroundings why
shouldn't a building one of the first
buildings to follow this philosophy was
the yamanashi press and broadcast center
built in 1966 with its exposed pillars
allowing future floors to be added above
then in 1967 came the shizuoka press and
broadcasting tower which looks more akin
to a plant than a building with its
cantilevered floors protruding outwards
but it was the nakagin capsule tower
opened in 1972 and designed by visionary
architect kishore kurukawa that went on
to become the iconic symbol of the
metabolism philosophy
with the capsules prefabricated outside
of tokyo the assembly of the tower
itself was completed in just 30 days
with 140 capsules measuring 2.5 meters
wide and 4 meters long and just like a
regular apartment the capsules could be
bought and sold one man lucky enough to
own his own capsule since 2010
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the sad irony of the nakagen capsule
tower is that the building that was
meant to adapt and last forever will
likely be gone in the next two to three
years when the tower was built the
original plan was to replace all the
capsules every 25 years effectively
dismantling the entire structure and
reassembling it however to do that
required not only money but the
permission of all the owners of all the
capsules given the removal of just one
capsule would require many other
capsules to be removed a pretty big flaw
in the grand scheme of things perhaps
unsurprisingly then none of the capsules
were ever replaced and the building has
fallen into disrepair underneath the
impressive exterior the building of
tomorrow is a crumbling asbestos-filled
mess and today only a handful of
residents actually live in the tower
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the sad truth is in recent times tokyo
has faced a great deal of gentrification
and many of the historic buildings with
unique architectural characteristics are
disappearing
during the economic miracle architects
could get away with pretty much anything
not so much today
you only have to look at the bland
forgettable buildings that crowd around
the nakagen capsule tower to get a sense
of where things are heading joining us
inside today is my good friend and tokyo
real estate expert alex shapiro who can
attest to the rapidly changing skyline
over the last decade
they have a very kind of utilitarian
mindset towards architecture in japan
for the most part particularly in cities
right they just want it up they want to
get the job done around here it's just
these generic buildings you know you
could be anywhere in the world it all
looked the same until you've seen quite
a few buildings disappear in recent
years right yeah so you've had the sega
building over in akihabara you also had
harajuku
which was one of my favorite buildings
in tokyo actually was this old it looked
like a house almost remember what that
looked like yeah it was chaotic going
through it but it looked nice i think
that's the thing right they sort of
think well let's just make something
that's more easy and usable for people
but utilitarian at the cost of design so
i'm looking forward to going in though
i've wanted to go in this building for
nine years now and i've stood at this
spot many times and taken photos and
wanted to go in so i'm very excited
let's go let's go check it out
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midasan is taking us on a tour of three
separate capsules and the first one is
the original untouched room
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interior
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oh wow
oh my god
what an incredible view what incredible
room pretty crazy huh it is as small as
i imagined so it's nine meters square
right yep and that's including all of
everything here like all of the uh
cabinets and everything but i love the
way it's all sort of built into it right
we've got the tv we've got the phone
this what's this oh well this is a
realtorial tape deck this is original
from 1972.
right so before they had cassettes and
cds and all that you use these guys
and you've probably seen this impulse
fiction actually yeah yeah and then when
she starts dancing exactly in the house
yeah before she overdoses exactly
so the tv might not work it might not
work
this might not work but
the radio
works in there yeah
not very well
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that's maximum volume it's only coming
from this speaker this guy's broken
sadly but
yeah
it's very cool
signing built to last
the bed was here right the bed was right
here you would sort of just sit on the
floor maybe
you know bash out a script
listen to your music yep and then yeah
click off
yeah pick up your reel to reel and just
pop into bed i wonder what it would have
been like if the bib is here
you've got to sort of look up at the tv
a little bit oh yeah i don't even think
about it man especially since this is
supposed to be the head
yeah how does that work i can't tell
it's like slight 4 in a grand flat but
let's look at the bathroom oh yeah
it's it's so small but it kind of works
yeah
it's a nice deep bath
you could actually
you could sit in that and have a nice
sort of deep bath we may stretch your
legs god forbid no no
this looks very seventies i like this
yeah nice
and the color very seventies
looks like somebody was smoking in here
for a long time
they definitely work
it's very minimalistic isn't it yeah i i
don't know if i could live in a room
this big maybe for like a few weeks
it'll be kind of fun you can sort of sit
by the window like at night i think this
would be an incredible view sort of
sitting on the bed looking out over the
tokyo skyline and also if you like
cooking i would not recommend this place
for you because
there's no kitchen there's no kitchen i
didn't think about that yeah this is not
a communal kitchen i don't think so okay
yeah so mcdonald's every day basically
well if you're in the middle of ginza
that's one
mcdonald's yoshinoya family mart job
done who needs a kitchen anyway
the second room that midasan shares with
us is his own private space which he's
modernized and turned into a room for
social gatherings and events
you ready to see the next one
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yeah i can't think of putting ten people
into this place that is crazy and again
with this one there's no kitchen but
there is actually a little fridge and
microwave over there so you could you
know do some bentos or something like
that if you had them
pre-made the final room is the most
modern and stylish of the three it was a
collaboration between the naked capsule
tower and muji a popular japanese brand
associated with selling household goods
with a minimalistic aesthetic
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this room is nice it is very nice it's
very nice yeah this goes to show what
you can do with this kind of space yeah
i mean
what nine meters squared right yeah
a frighteningly small space to live in
by taking out the whole
modular 1970s
space it does kind of work my only
criticism is it almost just feels like a
generic room right
yeah without the sony kind of tech yeah
retro tech it's kind of it misses some
of the magic it does and you don't have
the carpet either you have these nice
wood floors i will say it was very nice
it feels a lot bigger actually in my
opinion could you live here that one i
could totally live here no you could i
could no you could i could have all my
you know
four items of clothing on the wall
and yeah i can totally live here in this
so you want to save the night i would
love to i must the only thing i will say
is a little damp
it's kind of old a little musty yeah
yeah give me the air con could be the
fact this building's like 50 years old
it's it's very stale in here i can get
over it though get some incense sticks
job done yeah
one night only get out smoke yeah class
man it'd be a very very short-lived uh
stay in the room i think yeah the
specialist
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you have to wonder had the capsules been
built to last and not be replaced every
25 years perhaps the building's future
would have been secured
and it's fun to imagine at tokyo where
the economic boom never ended and
eccentric architects were given
unlimited budgets and allowed to throw
practicalities out the window who knows
what the tokyo skyline might have looked
like
but unfortunately japan's economic
bubble did burst in the early 90s in
2007 kishor kurukawa the designer of the
capsule tower passed away and in recent
years any hopes of receiving unesco
world heritage status or any government
protection have faded but there is a ray
of hope recent crowdfunding efforts have
been launched to try and preserve
several capsules when the building is
inevitably demolished
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i have to say that original capsule was
so damn cool i imagine going back to
1972 everything brand new shiny white
the panels the sony equipment that's
like the tv the radio and everything
yeah no it is awesome and still today i
think it's really cool but at the same
time i know you like it all shiny and
new looking but at the same time i love
it old and like dilapidated and decrepit
and rusty and all that kind of stuff
well i mean it is one step away from
being a high kill right japanese
abandoned building but there's been a
very successful crowdfunding campaign
which you can find in the description
box below where they're going to try and
preserve a few of the capsules right
yeah they're going to be in probably
museums all around the world hopefully
hopefully so that's pretty promising but
thank you alex for coming today check
out alex's channel tokyo portfolio also
linked in the description box below but
for now guys always many thanks for
watching abroad in japan we'll see you
right back here do all over again in the
next episode
bye for now
take it away
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you