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Review: Nakagin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist Landmark on the Edge of Destruction by Rima Yamazaki, director

2014; University of California Press; Volume: 73; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1525/jsah.2014.73.4.580

2150-5926

Nicholas Risteen,

Urban Planning and Landscape Design

Book Review| December 01 2014 Review: Nakagin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist Landmark on the Edge of Destruction by Rima Yamazaki, director Rima Yamazaki, directorNakagin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist Landmark on the Edge of DestructionMichael Blackwood Productions, New York, 2010, DVD, 58 min., $60, http://www.michaelblackwoodproductions.com/archs_nakagin.php Nicholas Risteen Nicholas Risteen 1Princeton University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2014) 73 (4): 580–581. https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2014.73.4.580 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Nicholas Risteen; Review: Nakagin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist Landmark on the Edge of Destruction by Rima Yamazaki, director. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 1 December 2014; 73 (4): 580–581. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2014.73.4.580 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the Society of Architectural Historians Search Since the announcement of its impending demolition in 2007 (an act that has yet to be realized, though appears ever present on the horizon), Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower has proved a conundrum. Is the building history, or theory? Postwar exemplar, or failed mission? Worth the expense of renovation, or long past its expiration date? None of these questions allow for easy answers, and it is a credit to Rima Yamazaki’s short documentary film Nagakin Capsule Tower: Japanese Metabolist Landmark on the Edge of Destruction that it does not try to answer them. Not providing an answer, however, does not imply that the film remains unbiased in its assessment (as its subtitle clearly shows): we are meant to view this structure as a unique and irreplaceable piece of history. But is that enough to save it? Yamazaki’s film operates primarily through interviews and quiet pan shots, interspersed with a select... You do not currently have access to this content.