Foreign company could save iconic postwar establishment designed by Kisho Kurokawa.
Jiji Press has reported the Nakagin Capsule Tower apartment building could have a saving grace in the form of a foreign corporation that is looking to acquire its land rights.
The foreign company is holding negotiations on acquiring the building in the Ginza district, which will see whether the building and its unique exterior will be kept or scrapped.
An icon of Japan's metabolism movement, the 140-capsule condo was built in 1972, and a symbol of Japan's postwar economic boom.
The 13-story complex of independent housing module capsules is the work of the late Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. He is known as one of the leaders of the postwar architectural movement called metabolism.
In 2018, Nakagin Integration Inc. sold the title to the land used for the building to a real estate company, according to Tatsuyuki Maeda, who owns some of the capsules and heads a preservation project for the tower.
The real estate company at one time considered reconstructing the building, which introduced the possibility of the tower being dispelled.
Source: Jiji Press, Japan Property Central
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