[IN IMAGES] The Nakagin Tower, Tokyo's iconic building dismantled

The Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo was built in 1972 by architect Kisho Karokawa.

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The Nakagin tower, near Shimbashi station in Tokyo, will be dismantled to be better preserved.

The property developer plans to donate some capsules to museums.

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This building, better known as the "Nakagin Capsule Tower", is made up of 140 capsules with large windows, says

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Each 10 square meter room includes a folding bed, a mini bathroom, a television and a radio from another era.

Its look, emblematic of the architecture of the 70s, has always remained futuristic.

Some capsules will be renovated to be sold or donated to museums around the world. 

One of the 140 rooms in the Nagakin Tower.

Getty Images - Carl Court

Resident of the tower, DJ Cosplaykoechan used her capsule as a studio to broadcast her sets live during confinement.

Getty Images - Carl Court

Nagakin Capsule Tower's original telephone, tape recorder and radio.

Getty Images - Carl Court

Originally, each module attached to a central pillar had to be removed and replaced every 25 years.

But no renovation was done due to the cost.

Due to lack of maintenance, the modules stuffed with asbestos have deteriorated and no longer comply with the new seismic standards. 

Since 1972, the Nakagin Tower, designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa, has been a testament to the inventiveness of Metabolism, a Japanese architectural movement.

Portrait of Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa in January 1988, Japan.

Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images - Kurita KAKU

According to this approach, cities and buildings conceived as living organisms grew by adding units.

This theory of an evolving architecture reached its peak in 1970, during the Universal Exhibition in Osaka, for which the architect built three pavilions.

In France, he was at the origin of several architectural projects including the Tour Pacifique office building in La Défense and a housing complex in Nîmes, Le Colisée.

Kisho Kurokawa, Scheme of urbanization, 1961 [part of the set “Metamorphosis '65”, Center Pompidou, Paris.

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— Casiano Mas 👽 (@CasianoMas) October 19, 2021

In 2014, Christian Dimmer, professor of urban planning, explained that it was a question of serving as a model for “ 

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