The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is hosting an exhibition dedicated to Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower from July 10, 2025, through July 12, 2026. Titled The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, the exhibition offers a retrospective on the building's 50-year lifespan. Constructed in Tokyo's Ginza district in 1972 and dismantled in 2022, the tower is presented through contextual materials, original drawings, archival recordings, and a fully restored capsule. The exhibition invites reflection on how cities address aging buildings and the rapid transformation of urban areas. The diverse materials documenting the tower's continuous evolution over five decades encourage viewers to consider how architecture might endure by taking on new roles and functions beyond its original purpose.
One of Kurokawa's most recognized works, and among the few realized projects of the Metabolist movement, the Nakagin Capsule Tower stands as a radical experiment in urban living. Japanese Metabolism, developed in the 1960s, envisioned buildings and cities as dynamic entities capable of change, often drawing on biological principles. The exhibition introduces the tower as a former "symbol of Japan's postwar techno-futurism," embodying a vision of adaptable architecture. It takes as its starting point Kurokawa's own declaration: "This building is not an apartment house."
The tower consisted of two interconnected concrete-and-steel cores supporting 140 single-occupancy "capsules," each equipped with prefabricated interiors and a Sony color television. The capsules were manufactured off-site and bolted to the tower's core, embodying Kurokawa's vision of architecture as a living organism capable of growth and renewal through "metabolic cycles." These capsules were meant to be replaced every 25 to 35 years to meet evolving needs, but none were, and the original units remained in place until the building's demolition. The adaptive concept found expression not in the building's structural renewal, but in its functional repurposing: over five decades, the same capsules were transformed into offices, tea rooms, art galleries, and DJ booths.
MoMA's exhibition features capsule A1305, one of only 14 restored to original condition, acquired by the museum in 2023 after the building's dismantling. Formerly located on the tower's top floor, the capsule has been restored using original components salvaged from other units, including the complete set of audio-electronic features that were optional at the time. It is displayed alongside original drawings, photographs, promotional materials, archival film and audio, interviews with former residents, an interactive virtual tour of the building, and the only surviving architectural model from 1970–72. The exhibition charts the project's shifting narrative, from its initial marketing as micro-apartments for urban businessmen to its gradual decline and eventual dismantlement.
The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower is organized by Evangelos Kotsioris, Assistant Curator, with Paula Vilaplana de Miguel, Curatorial Associate, Department of Architecture and Design. MoMA members will have the opportunity to step inside the capsule during select special activation events in the museum's street-level galleries. Additional public programming will be organized in collaboration with the Japan Society in New York. The exhibition is accompanied by a new volume in MoMA's One on One series, an illustrated book by Evangelos Kotsioris that explores the design, construction, transformation, demolition, and legacy of the Nakagin Capsule Tower.
Metabolism remains a significant Japanese contribution to international modernism, an architectural vision shaped by both high-tech ideals and traditional Japanese principles. Recent news on modern architecture around the world include an exhibition at Le Corbusier's Maison La Roche in Paris, which explores his influence abroad, particularly on Brazilian modernism. At the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, Sverre Fehn's Nordic Pavilion is hosting an exhibition that reimagines architecture through the lens of the trans-body. Meanwhile, in Mexico City, plans were announced to transform Luis Barragán's modernist landmark, La Cuadra de San Cristóbal, into a public cultural campus.
