THE NAKAGIN CAPSULE TOWER, TOYKO, JAPAN, 1972

The Nakagin Capsule Tower was built in the Ginza district of Toyko, Japan. Designed by the late architect Kisho Kurokawa, it was completed in 1972. It is thirteen or fourteen floors high (depending on how you count them) and is made up of a 140 prefabricated modules or capsules. It is a mixed used residential tower combined with offices. As of this writing there are plans to tear it down due to concerns about asbestos used in the construction of the capsules and also worries about the building's ability to withstand an earthquake but there is a growing movement to preserve the building for the architectural gem that it is.

You can read more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakagin_Capsule_Tower

http://pingmag.jp/2008/12/22/nakagin/

It is one of the few remaining buildings of the Metabolist movement of architecture.

View of Kisho Kurokawa's interior designs for an apartment capsule.

Another interior view of an apartment capsule.

However, it invites comparisons with Moshie Safdie's modular apartment complex called Habitat '67 which was built for the 1967 Montreal World Fair. Habitat predates the Nakagin tower by five years. Compare the two buildings for yourself.

Canadian architect Moshie Safdie's 1967 modular apartment complex called Habitat '67 constructed for the 1967 Montreal World Fair. There are similarities with Safdie's design and that of the Nakagin Capsule Tower designed by Kurokawa Kisho.