Inflection Journal Inflection is published annually by the Melbourne School of Design at the

Volume 04 - Permanence University of Melbourne and AADR: Art Architecture Design Research.
November 2017
Editors:
Dominic On, Jessica Wood, Nina Tory-Henderson and Stephen Yuen

Deputy Editors:
Catherine Woo and Olivia Potter

Academic Advisor:
Dr. AnnMarie Brennan

Academic Advisory Board:

Dr. AnnMarie Brennan
Prof. Alan Pert
Prof. Gini Lee

Acknowledgements:
The editors would like to thank all those involved in the production
of this journal for their generous assistance and support.

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[email protected]

inflectionjournal.com
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© Copyright 2017

ISSN 2199-8094

ISBN 978-3-88778-520-8

AADR – Art, Architecture and Design Research publishes research with

an emphasis on the relationship between critical theory and creative
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The opinions expressed in Inflection are those of the

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Cover Image:
Wrecking the Seat of Learning
Argus Newspaper Collection of
Photographs, State Library of
Victoria
CONTENTS

06 74
Editorial Christine Bjerke
Dual-Living: The
Digitalisation of
Domestic Space

10 78
Barnaby Bennett Elizabeth Diller
Breaking and On Obsolescence
Making Temporality

18 88
Christof Mayer Tod Williams and Billie Tsien
Cui Bono? The City as a On Slowness
Product of Societal
Negotiation

32 98
Aki Ishida Eleni Bastéa
Metabolic Impermanence: The Memory of Loss
The Nakagin Capsule Tower

44 108
Kaylene Tan Tanja Beer*
Unfinished: Brutalist The Aesthetics of
Heritage in the Making Impermanence

54 116
Casey Mack Toby Dean
Future Stock The Reassembled Town Hall

64 126
Dan Hill Jessica Wood
On Systems MPavilion: Catalyst
or Cat's Paw?

68 132
Amelyn Ng Sean Anderson
Illusions of Freedom On Imagined Placelessness

*denotes articles that have been formally peer-reviewed

METABOLIC
IMPERMANENCE
THE NAKAGIN CAPSULE TOWER

Aki Ishida

When a building is designed with intentional impermanence, material aging.3 However, in the 45 years since its completion
its historic preservation presents a paradox. First completed no replacement has taken place. Today, the tower faces
in 1972, the Nakagin Capsule Tower by Kisho Kurokawa the alternatives of preservation, alteration or demolition.
is such a structure. As The New York Times critic Nicolai If the design’s central idea has not been executed half a
Ouroussoff wrote in 2009, ‘The Capsule Tower is not only century later, how do we justify its future, either through
gorgeous architecture; like all great buildings, it is the restoration as a cultural monument, or demolition to make
crystallisation of a far-reaching cultural ideal. Its existence way for new structures and ideologies? Moreover, when a
also stands as a powerful reminder of paths not taken, of work of architecture is built upon principles of growth and
the possibility of worlds shaped by different sets of values.’1 transformation over time, what are the implications for its
In the Metabolist spirit of continual growth, the architect preservation?
designed the capsule living units to be replaced every 25
to 35 years, whilst the concrete cores were estimated to
last over 60 years.2 The shorter lifespan of the capsules was
intended to reflect anticipated societal change, rather than

32 Inflection Metabolic Impermanence

Nakagin Capsule Tower, Axonometric.
Drawing by © KISHO KUROKAWA architect &
associates

Opposite: Nakagin Capsule Tower, level 5

floor plan.
Drawing by © KISHO KUROKAWA architect &
associates

Following page: Under construction.

Photograph by Tomio Ohashi
© KISHO KUROKAWA architect & associates

Vol 04 Permanence 33
Nakagin Capsule Tower young architect, including cities and architecture. Following
Kurokawa’s Nakagin Tower consists of two reinforced the devastating losses in the war, Kurokawa continued to look
concrete and steel frame cores, to which 140 capsule units to iconic buildings in traditional Japanese architecture studied
are attached with high-tensile steel bolts.4 Prefabricated by the imperialist architects of their fathers’ generation.
by a railroad car manufacturer, each module consists of However, the Metabolists did so in ways which were
a bathroom unit, circular window, built-in furniture and fundamentally different from the previous generation.
appliances. Each capsule is individually anchored to the
concrete shaft, so that it might be replaced without affecting The Metabolists were seeking modernity in philosophy,
the others.5 The small living spaces, designed primarily for not in style. Unlike the visually dominant traditions of the
lounging and sleeping, are minimally equipped with a bed, West, they sought the invisible by looking to venerable
bathroom, refrigerator and sink.6 The entire construction architectural practices of the past such as the Ise Shrine
took only one year, with all 140 units sold by the time of (680 AD) and Katsura Palace (1620 AD). Here they found the
completion.7 The units were originally owned by companies notions of impermanence and prefabrication that they then
who used them as temporary housing for travelling transposed into their own practice.12 Kurokawa says, “We are
employees, as business offices or investments. talking about Ise as an invisible continuity: every 20 years
the visible—the architecture—is rebuilt. We say the tradition
Kurokawa’s Metabolist philosophy was motivated by his has been maintained for 1,200 years, though the material
criticism of Japan’s pre-war modernisation: westernisation is always new”.13 He writes, ‘… the Japanese have never felt
based on industrialisation. The two pillars of the Metabolist that the materials themselves have a sense of eternity. On
movement were to resist the course of cultural evolution the contrary, they are and always have been conscious of the
based on Western values and to seek out a contemporary spirit and philosophy beyond the materials and regard the
language for architecture specific to Japanese culture.8 form as an intermediary conveying that spirit and philosophy
Kurokawa criticised those who tried to resuscitate and imitate of human beings.’14 Similarly, the Katsura was expanded
ancient Japanese structures during World War I colonisation twice over 150 years using different modules for each phase,
and the period following World War II. He argued for defining and that at each stage it was considered a beauty, ‘perfect
the present, not the past, as the backbone of Japanese as a constantly changing process.’15 The Palace embodied
culture.9 metabolic ideas of cyclical growth over time which made
it an apt precedent for the Metabolist manifesto. Where
Foundations of Metabolist Philosophy Western culture might retain the very blocks of stone with
A building designed with intentional impermanence requires which ancient temples were built, Japanese culture views the
an understanding of the life-death cycle that is specific to the permanence of an artefact as secondary to the process of craft
culture of its place. The Metabolist philosophy is founded in passed on for generations.16 This attitude is even evidenced
Japanese thinking, both ancient and modern, and the idea of in the Japanese laws which protect cultural properties such
constant renewal is deeply rooted in the Buddhist religion. as manners and customs, and in the designation of the title
Kurokawa wrote extensively on the paradoxical Japanese ‘National Living Treasure’ to a living person practicing a
practice of achieving permanence through impermanence, craft such as noh theatre or pottery. Thus, the question of
embodied in the predominantly light-weight timber preserving the Nakagin Capsule Tower demands a culture-
construction used throughout Japan. He writes that because specific examination of permanence.
most important Japanese buildings are timber, they are
accepting of their own entropy; buildings participate in the
Buddhist idea of rinne—the on-going cycle of life and death.10
Moreover, the Buddhist idea of muso holds that ‘human beings
should not become too attached to any one idea or place but
should always remain aware of being in eternal time.’

Kurokawa’s position on impermanence also has a foundation

in his youth spent in war-torn Japan. In a 2005 interview with
Rem Koolhaas, Kurokawa recalled witnessing his hometown
of Nagoya, a city of 1.5 million, destroyed overnight by
hundreds of bombers.11 Witnessing his city vanish in an
instant impressed the impermanence of all things upon the

34 Inflection Metabolic Impermanence

Vol 04 Permanence 35
Top: Nakagin Tower in 1972. Photograph
by Tomio Ohashi
© KISHO KUROKAWA architect & associates

Opposite: Nakagin Tower façade today.

Photograph by Nicholas Coates

36 Inflection Metabolic Impermanence

Vol 04 Permanence 37
The Debate Reasons for Resistance
For a building as radical in concept and form as the Nakagin Additional factors stand in the way of the Tower’s
Capsule Tower, its life of 47 years is already “a miracle,” in the preservation. The original construction cost of each capsule
words of Arata Isozaki.17 Nonetheless, the building’s failure to was US $4,500.26 Shortly before his death in 2007, Kurokawa’s
uphold its philosophy of continual change and growth makes office estimated the replacement cost to be as high as
its preservation controversial. With the aging of the Tower, $80,000. In 1972, the structure stood prominently as the
the question of replacement or demolition was no surprise to tallest building for blocks around. Today, other buildings
its architect. Since 1998, Kisho Kurokawa and his associates encroach tightly on three sides with an elevated highway on
had been devising plans to update the Tower. In accordance the fourth, excessively increasing the cost of replacing the
with his philosophy of permanent impermanence, the office capsules by crane.
made elaborate schemes to replace the capsules and the
by-now dangerously corroded steel connection bolts whilst The Tower also stands on prime Tokyo real estate. On average,
repairing and preserving the concrete cores. The tower's the construction cost of a building in Tokyo accounts for
outward appearance would remain consistent with the a tenth of its land value, a statistic which highlights the
original design, the capsules would not be exact replicas of inclination for Japan’s scrap-and-build mentality.27 Moreover,
the 1972 model. Rather, Kurokawa wanted “to see new ones the building management firm, Nakagin, faces complicated
built to the same design, but incorporating new technologies security and utility billing challenges with the building’s
like renewable energies and broadband.”18 multiple functions of apartment, office and informal hotel.
The building is no longer watertight and no longer has
The Tower’s preservation was widely supported by the running hot water. Many abandoned capsules have mouldy
international architecture community. In February 2005, and compromised ceilings and walls, and make-shift
World Architecture News (WAN) published their poll of waterproofing contraptions made from plastic bags and tubes
over 10,000 architects in 100 countries. The results were are common sights.28 The capsule walls are thin with limited
overwhelmingly in favour of saving the Tower: 75 percent asbestos insulation, making them hot in the summer and cold
favoured maintaining the core and replacing the capsules, 20 in the winter, and with no operable windows, the capsules are
percent supported restoration to its original condition and completely dependent on mechanical systems.29
five percent voted for total demolition. Many argued that
the core concept of the structure should be honoured, the Capsule as Mobile Cyborg
capsules replaced and the Tower restored as an example of In a manner characteristic of Kurokawa, his design looked
the Metabolist movement.19 to the future whilst considering Japan’s past. The Nakagin
capsules were designed in tatami module proportions of
However, it is a different story outside the global architecture 2.5 metres by 4 metres. As Charles Jencks points out in his
community. On April 15 2007, 80 percent of the capsule unit introduction to Kurokawa’s book Metabolism in Architecture,
owners voted in favour of demolition and replacement with the capsules embody futuristic technology and ideas in the
a more profitable building. This plan would give each capsule proportions of traditional Japanese space. In his 1969 ‘Capsule
owner more than double the space for the same price as Declaration,’ Kurokawa included images of traditional
rebuilding the original design.20 Consequently in 2005, at the Japanese kago: small palanquins strung from a pole carried
age of 71, Kurokawa launched a passionate campaign to save by two people, which he called ‘capsules.’30 He declared that
the Nakagin Tower.21 The architect garnered support world- in the future, a human’s status will be measured by mobility
wide, but died two years later. By this time, development of rather than plot size.31 In his 1969 essay 'Homo Movens', he
the new tower had stalled for multiple reasons: the economic sketched connections back to the tradition of agricultural
recession of the late 2000s, the public’s suspicion of post-war workers who travelled from villages to urban areas in the
architecture and the general lack of interest in housing invest- winter, dwelling in seasonal homes. 32 He believed that this
ments.22 In 2013, there were only 10 to 15 people living in the mobile mode of living would become increasingly central to
Tower, whilst the rest were abandoned.23 More recently, advo- Japan’s urban life. Now, 45 years later, Japan does not value
cates for the preservation of the Tower have been purchasing such mobility, at least not in the ways he imagined.
units one by one, including architect Masato Abe who rents
his unit on Airbnb to tourists and architecture enthusiasts.24
With an increase in the number of unit owners who support
restoration, construction of an entirely new building may Capsule interior, 1972.
now face significant opposition.25 Drawing by © KISHO KUROKAWA architect & associates

38 Inflection Metabolic Impermanence

Vol 04 Permanence 39
To Kurokawa, the capsule was an approach to housing rooted upon multiple external factors including maintenance,
in the idea of humanity's co-existence with technology. the architect’s design for its aging or evolution over time,
‘The capsule is cyborg architecture ... As a human being property values and financial resources to preserve or
equipped with a man-made internal organ becomes a new reconstruct.38 For a work of architecture to be deemed worthy
species which is neither machine nor human, so the capsule of preservation for its cultural value, it requires the architect,
transcends man and equipment.’ He likens his capsule to a the owner and the city to actively participate in the building’s
spaceship—a container that would be meaningless without continuous adaptation. Abandoned by the client, its capsules
an astronaut inside, and vice versa.33 The term ‘cyborg’ was too cramped for living and situated on a plot targeted for
coined in 1960 by scientist Manfred Clynes as a portmanteau a new development, the Nakagin Capsule Tower no longer
of cybernetic and organism. According to Clynes, a cyborg participates in the metabolic processes of a contemporary
‘incorporates exogenous components extending the self- city. When a building designed as a living organism no longer
regulatory control function of the organism in order to adapt supports the life of those who live inside, an argument for
it to new environments.’ He imagined astronauts as cyborgs the Tower’s reconstruction appears unconvincing; to impose
equipped with machines to withstand the harsh environment living in a reconstructed monument would be contrary to the
of outer space.34 NASA’s A7L Apollo and Skylab spacesuit, Metabolic principle.
worn on the moon by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in
1968, was produced by the manufacturers of the Playtex Bra Learning from the Debate
and Girdle Company. Soft, multi-layered and built for comfort The debate over the future of Tokyo’s Nakagin Capsule Tower
in the harshest environment, the astronauts depended on suggests a need for a culturally specific approach to the
the technologies of their spacesuit for survival.35 Although preservation of architecture. As a building embedded in the
equipped with advanced domestic electronics of the day, the Japanese principle of permanence through impermanence,
capsules did not coexist synergistically with their human the Tower’s situation calls for a re-examination of Katsura’s
occupants as cyborgs. Instead of comfortably cushioning expansion and Ise’s ritualistic renewal. These two buildings
and protecting their bodies like a spacesuit, the capsules and the Tower’s fate may offer architects a middle way: for
lacked sufficient ventilation, insulation and waterproofing. the design of buildings which incorporate from the outset
Therefore, the abandoned state of the capsules have caused a process of renewal and growth over their lifespans. Seen
them to become spaceships without astronauts. in this light, the Nakagin Capsule Tower and Metabolist
philosophy might offer a different approach to the notion of
Preservation and Intended Impermanence sustainability—not of form or materials alone, but of ideas
The argument for the demolition of The Nakagin Capsule that sustain culture and the buildings which house it. The
Tower may seem equally convincing as that for its Tower offers an alternative metaphorical understanding
preservation. This polarity is reflected in the positions of of ‘renewable’ and ‘sustainable’ architecture. A building
two prominent contemporary Japanese architects. Arata that accommodates a ritualistic replacement of selected
Isozaki, who is strongly associated with the Metabolists yet parts could better anticipate continual changes in societal
not a member, believes in preservation on the grounds of contexts, materials and technologies than its more permanent
its cultural significance.36 In contrast, Toyo Ito, who started counterparts.
his office as the dreams of Metabolism began to wane, sees
architecture as living matter and finds difficulty in justifying
the preservation of a building that no longer functions as it
should.36 Whilst its cultural significance may be indisputable,
a careful examination of the forces against traditional
Western preservation makes Ito’s position compelling.

Preservationist and architect Jorge Otero-Pailos references

the idea of the ‘fourth dimension’ of architecture, which
is not merely time but ‘the process, whereby preservation
supplements architectural form in time, helping buildings
achieve the cultural significance that they should, but
for whatever reason, couldn’t on their own.’ We speak of
buildings as living and surviving ‘on their own,’ but as
with humans, the permanence of a building is dependent

40 Inflection Metabolic Impermanence

 Top: Capsule interior, 1972. Photograph
by Tomio Ohashi
© KISHO KUROKAWA architect & associates

Following page: Nakagin Tower today.

Photograph by Nicholas Coates

Vol 04 Permanence 41
42 Inflection Metabolic Impermanence
01 Nicolai Ouroussoff, “Future Vision Vanished to 21 Nakamura, e-mail message to author.
the Past,” The New York Times, July 6, 2009, 22 Ouroussoff, “Future Vision Vanished to the Past”
accessed February 25, 2015, http://www.nytimes. 23 Filipe Magalhães and Ana Luisa Soares, “The
com/2009/07/07/arts/design/07capsule.html. Metabolist Routine,” Domus: Blog, May 29, 2013,
02 Kisho Kurokawa, ‘Challenge to the Capsule: accessed May 31, 2015, http://www.domusweb.it/en/
Nakagin Capsule Tower Building,’ Japan Architect architecture/2013/05/29/the_metabolist_routine.
47 (October 1972): 17. html.
03 Ibid. 24 Katie Forster, “Tokyo’s tiny capsules of
04 Sayaka Nakamura (of Kisho Kurokawa architect and architectural flair,” Japan Times, October
associates), e-mail message to author, May 11, 3, 2014, accessed May 31, 2015,http://www.
2017. japantimes.co.jp/culture/2014/10/03/arts/tokyos-
05 Hiroshi Watanabe, “Evaluation: composition of tiny-capsules-architectural-flair/#.VD3Y-CldUpw.
cubes in Tokyo,” AIA Journal 69, no. 12 (1980): 25 MotionGallery Nakagin Capsule Tower Preservation/
74-77. Restoration Project, 2015, accessed August 31,
06 Nakamura, e-mail message to author. 2015, https://motion-gallery.net/users/42781/
07 Zhongjie Lin, “Nakagin Capsule Tower: revisiting creations.
the future of the recent past,” Journal of 26 Watanabe, “Evaluation,” 76.
Architectural Education 65, no. 1 (2011): 13-32. 27 Bognar Botond, “What Goes Up, Must Come Down,”
08 Kisho Kurokawa, “Grave-Post of Contemporary Harvard Design Magazine, no. 3 (1997).
Architecture,” Space Design 163 (1978): 3-6. 28 Based on the author’s stay at unit 907B through
09 Ibid. Airbnb on in July 9, 2014.
10 Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture, 35. 29 Watanabe, “Evaluation,” 76.
11 Ibid. 30 Charles Jencks, introduction to Metabolism in
12 Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Project Architecture by Kisho Kurokawa (Boulder: Westview
Japan: Metabolism Talks (Köln: Taschen GmbH, Press: 1977): 8-22.
2011), 385-391. 31 Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture, 78.
13 Ibid., 379. 32 Ibid., 105.
14 Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture, 32. 33 Ibid., 75.
15 Koolhaas, Project Japan, 379. 34 Ronald Kline, “Where are the Cyborgs in
16 Yoichiro Hakamori, “The Sacred and the Profane in Cybernetics?,” Social Studies of Science 39, no.
Matsuri Structures,” Matsuri! Japanese Festival 3 (June 2009): 332, accessed March 26, 2017,
Arts, ed. Gloria Gonick (Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/stable/
Museum of Cultural History, 2002), 77-95. pdf/27793297.pdf.
17 Nakagin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist 35 Nicholas de Monchaux, “Space Suit and the City,”
Landmark on the Edge of Destruction, directed by Log, Aftershocks: Generation(s) since 1968, no.
Rima Yamazaki (Michael Blackwood Productions, 13/14 (Fall 2008): 101-114, accessed March 26,
2011), DVD. 2017, http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/
18 Jan-Carlos Kucharek, “Pod cast: Nakagin Capsule stable/pdf/41765235.pdf.
Tower, Japan,” RIBA Journal 114, no. 4 (2007): 36 Nakagin Capsule Tower DVD.
63-64. 37 Ibid.
19 “Nakagin Tower dilemma,” World Architecture 38 Rem Koolhaas et al., Preservation is Overtaking
News, September 23, 2005, accessed February 25, Us (New York: GSAPP Books, 2014), 98.
2015, http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/
project/2005/126/wan-editorial/nakagin-capsule-
tower-in-tokyo.html?q=nakagin%20capsule.
20 Yuki Solomon, “Kurokawa’s Capsule Tower To Be
Razed,”
Architectural Record, April 30, 2007, accessed
July 30, 2015, http://archrecord.construction.
com/news/daily/archives/070430kurokawa.asp.

Vol 04 Permanence 43