Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo - designed by Kisho Kuroawa, built in 1972.

   Regarded as the epitome of Metabolist architecture in Japan, the Nakagin Capsule Tower is designed with 144 prefabricated residential capsules that are bolted to two vertical reinforced concrete shafts. These stair and elevator shafts thus carry the entire weight of the assemblage. The tower was meant to be a prototype of residences for a mobile urban society whose members could easily transport their custom-made residential capsules from place to place and "dock" them on readily available vertical "port" structures. Such interchangeability, provided by advanced industrial technology and prefabrication, was one of the goals of many architects in the 1960s.