Description

One-room capsules are docked in all directions to a central concrete nucleus. The capsules are the same as those used for the famous larger Nagakin Capsule Tower. Their dimensions are an answer to the requirements for ease of transport and rapid assembly (on to the nucleus).

This house on a hill develops from the top downwards: the garage and roof terrace are on the entrance level; the floor below is reached by an exterior flight of stairs and is composed of capsules containing a tea room, a kitchen, and two private rooms; the second floor down, consisting solely of the “trunk,” is a living room with large circular window. A spiral staircase connects the stories.

The capsules are ordered around the nucleus at increasing heights, suggesting a procession upwards to the tea room at the highest point. Kurokawa’s idea of a “tea room in a space ship” was transformed into architectural reality here: state-of-the-art technology makes sense only when it is employed so as to enable people to partake of pleasures such as the tea ceremony.

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Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fourth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2011.