Iconic tiny Tokyo capsule home goes on display in New York

An iconic Tokyo building has found a new home in New York—at least part of it has. The Nakagin Capsule Tower hosted 140 tiny homes, and now one of those pods is on display at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The stacks of boxes with their distinctive circular windows were a local landmark in the Ginza District. Each was a ‘micro-dwelling,’ a tiny home just about big enough for one. The Nakagin Capsule Tower was designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa and was added to Tokyo’s skyline in 1972. In 2022, the building was demolished—but it wasn’t the end for all its mini homes. It’s traveled all the way to New York to go on display in the Museum of Modern Art’s street-level galleries. Inside, it’s been restored to its original condition, complete with a compact bathroom and electronics that would have been cutting edge in their day. “This was a radical experiment in urban living in Tokyo in Japan, and it was part of a building that existed on the ground between 1972 and 2022. What we see is this miniaturized living interior or an inhabitable capsule that is about 100 square feet large. And it was intended for people to be able to spend the night in Tokyo, especially if they were workers or salarymen. Instead of commuting to the suburbs in the evening,” explains Evangelos Kotsioris, assistant curator in architecture and design at MoMA. The way in which the building was used evolved over the decades, with rooms becoming student quarters, tea rooms, libraries and even DJ booths. “The Nakagin Capsule Tower is the most famous example of the Metabolist architecture, an architectural movement that started in 1960 in Japan, and viewed architecture, buildings and cities as living organisms that could grow and evolve and change over time. In this case, this building was supposed to have multiple lives. The capsules would be replaced every 25 or 30 years. But in the case of this project, that didn’t happen. Yet, it was an extremely influential project for architects and the wider audience alike," says Kotsioris. This article was provided by The Associated Press.