Nakagin Capsule Tower, or 9 square feet

Modern residential complexes of Moscow are increasingly represent a multistory building with small apartments-studios. The area of such apartments can begin from 13 square meters. But even they are far from the capsule apartments Nakagin Capsule Tower, an area not exceeding 9 square meters.

This famous building was built 48 years ago as an attempt to keep up with the frantic pace of development of the Japanese cities. The building consists of a concrete capsules which first produced in the factory and then delivered to the construction site and attached to the frame. On the idea of the architect, the capsules can be replaced if worn out, or merge, if residents need more space.

Fun fact: the Creator of this project Kisho Kurokawa was interested in the architecture of Soviet cities, in particular he was attracted by avant-garde houses of the Union. Once he even won a competition to design a new stadium in St. Petersburg.

In 2007, the year the architect died, and residents of the house voted for the demolition of the building, with the aim to build in its place a residential complex with a more comfortable housing. However, this disputed property still stands in its place. It attracts tourists with its unusual architecture and is a landmark building in Tokyo.

But this does not mean that the building is abandoned and not in use. Many residents reclassified their flats in office and now work where ever lived. Agree, office on 9 square meters for some of the individual entrepreneur is not so little.

If you want to live in one of the capsules of the famous tower Nakagin, you will have to pay 80 000 JPY (approximately 59 000 Russian rubles) per month, plus a Deposit in the same amount. The money will go to the reconstruction of the tower.

If you really want to stay in Nakagin Capsule Tower, but you have absolutely no desire or capacity for a month to live in Tokyo, you can make a sponsorship fee for restoration of the building of 200,000 Japanese yen, becoming, thus, the official patron of the project. And then you will be given the opportunity periodically on a day to stay in one of the capsules.

Another option to look at the enclosed area of the once popular residential buildings – to negotiate with the owner of one of the capsules. It will be the hard way, as the Japanese jealously guarding his private life and even to find a single inhabitant capsule tower will be problematic.

What are capsule apartment? This is a very compact, highly functional Studio, where exactly no "extra" square centimeter. One of the walls completely busy with built-in storage system, in which everything is closed, pushed and pushed. The bathroom is more similar to the room on Board the aircraft, with the only difference that it has little sedentary bathroom. All apartments have a large window-a window that outside can be equipped with a special screen that the neighbors did not look each other in the window.

Despite the fact that the design, and specifications of the apartments were made on the same project, the residents capsules manage to make them very individual inside. This convinced the photographer Noritaka Mine when I was working on a project "1972". Through her work, we are able to "see" inside the capsules is completely free.