In the 1970s, if you were to take a walk through a certain part of Tokyo's upscale Ginza district, one building in particular would have almost certainly caught your eye. Eschewing anything resembling traditional design, the zig-zagging geometry of its array of small, gleaming pods cutting against the azure sky, the Nakagin Capsule Tower was, and remains, a striking sight.
While the building exuded a technology-fueled optimism at the time of its construction in 1972, the structure, designed by renowned architect Kisho Kurokawa (1934-2007), gives off a different impression today, with the building seemingly hemmed in by the towering glass-and-steel structures that now surround it and a large net almost forlornly cast over the building ever since one of its windows fell onto the street below — not so much a future that awaits but a future lost.
Unsurprisingly, its unique, forward-looking design has seen the building become a minor pop cultural fixture, featuring in numerous music videos as well as films such as "The Wolverine" starring Hugh Jackman — in the latter case as a love hotel in Hiroshima Prefecture, naturally.