The Nakagin Capsule Tower was the symbol of a dream. It was designed in the late 1960s by architect Kisho Kurokawa and built in the early 1970s in Tokyo. Those times bursted with rapid technological advances and soaring new ideals. 

The Tower was an example of Metabolist Architecture, part of a revolutionary way of thinking about cities. Buildings would become like living organisms, ever-changing according to their users' needs. Modules would be swapped every 25 years and upgraded. 

But as history would show, these ideals did not predict the future. We moved away from prefabricated modules and single-purpose cabinets, and adopted an even more flexible habitat, a blank slate we fill with a constantly changing array of gadgets and appliances. 

 

I imagined what it would be like to breathe life into these capsules, and watch them sway and shift shape, like a living thing. 

 

The Nakagin Capsule Tower was dismantled last year, its pods scattered to the four winds, into various collections. It remains in our collective memory, a reminder of an alternate future, from when the times ahead shined the brightest. In its place, a new tower is being built.