The Times - UK (2022-04-04)

30 Monday April 4 2022 | the times

Wo r l d

F

or half a century it has

stood on the edge of the

Ginza district, one of

Tokyo’s most curious,

baffling and brilliant

buildings. A 13-storey assembly of

140 steel cubes bolted to two

central towers, it looks like the

world’s biggest Lego kit.

It was built by a visionary

architect and its tiny 8ft by 13ft

apartments have been home to

writers, artists and musicians.

But in a matter of days Nakagin

Capsule Tower will be no more.

Already the building next door

has been levelled in preparation

and next week the 1972

masterpiece designed by Kisho

Kurokawa will be demolished. It

is a sad end to a 15-year campaign

of preservation and the latest

example of Japan’s insatiable

appetite for destroying modern

architectural treasures.

The Nakagin’s capsules are one

of the few remaining examples of

Metabolism, the design style

Kurokawa founded.

“Architecture is not permanent

art, something that is completed

and fixed, but rather something

that grows towards the future, is

expanded upon, renovated and

developed,” he wrote. “This is the

concept of metabolism:

metabolise, circulate, recycle.”

Fitted out with Sony TVs and

moulded cream bathrooms, the

capsule apartments were

thoroughly of their era, providing

the 1970s salaryman with

everything necessary to function

in the minimum of space. But

they were also intended to be

components in a structure that

could evolve over time: replaced

every 25 years, or even removed

and attached to other capsule

buildings were any to spring up.

But no more such towers were

ever built and the task of

detaching a capsule from the

core turned out to be technically

impossible. In time, neglected

capsules mildewed and decayed.

Structurally, the building fails

to meet the new and rigorous

standards of earthquake

resistance that save lives in

Japan. But even as it began to

deteriorate, the Nakagin

attracted eccentric enthusiasts

determined to preserve the

building and the miniaturised

urban existences it fostered.

Among its residents, the last of

whom moved out only last

month, were writers, editors,

architects, designers, a film

producer and an American

lawyer. Some stripped the cubes

to the bare minimum: bed, chair,

desk, laptop. One resident

furnished her capsule in wood

and tatami mats, like a temple

tea room. Many used them as

offices but for at least 20 people

the capsule was home.

The cells, barely big enough for

one, might be expected to isolate

people from one another. “But

people who were attracted by the

building were brought together,”

said Tatsuyuki Maeda, who led

the failed effort to save the

Nakagin, and bought 15 of the

pods for four million yen

(£25,000) each. “The charm of

this building was the community

of creative people who used it.”

Now they are scattered. Hopes

of finding a foreign investor

prepared to spend the three

billion yen needed to restore the

Nakagin foundered during the

pandemic. The last hold-outs

accepted the inevitable and sold

up. Maeda has found

international buyers for at least

ten of the units in the United

States and Europe, where

Kurokawa’s reputation is more

highly esteemed. For ten million

yen (£62,000), the cost of fixing

up a capsule and removing its

asbestos, you can own one,

although shipping is not included.

It will not be the last notable

building to face destruction. In

the absence of any listing system,

Japan’s modern architectural

heritage is at the mercy of the

market. In the past few years the

wreckers have had their way with

the city’s most elegant 1960s

hotel, the Okura, and its oldest

wooden railway station,

Harajuku, which dated from

1924. Soon to be demolished are
      the 1966 National Theatre and
      most of the 1920s buildings in the
      British Embassy, sold by the
      Foreign Office to a developer for
      tens of millions of pounds.

Richard Lloyd Parry

TOKYO

The 13-storey tower consists of

140 capsules, each only 8ft by 13ft

FROM OUR

CORRESPONDENT

A tower of tiny capsules designed as homes

for salarymen is the latest victim of Japan’s

insatiable purge of modern architecture

ERNEST PORTER/CATERS NEWS

A painting believed to have been the
work of a student of Rembrandt has
been attributed to the Dutch master.
Landscape with Arched Bridge was
acquired by the Gemäldegalerie
museum in Berlin in 1924. It was
thought to be an original Rembrandt
until research in 1989 concluded that
it was painted by his pupil, Govert
Flinck. It was believed to imitate
Rembrandt’s 1637 Landscape with a
Stone Bridge, hanging in the Rijks-
museum, Amsterdam.
“Examina-
tions of the
Berlin painting
and the evalua-
tion of tech-
nical photo-
graphs, which
were not avail-
able in 1989,
have now con-
firmed that the
work was paint-

The landscape can

be seen at the

Gemäldegalerie

museum in Berlin

Leap of faith A springbok tries to evade a cheetah in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, a

wildlife reserve in South Africa, in this image captured by Ernest Porter, a safari guide

Landscape written off as

copy is really a Rembrandt

Germany
David Crossland Berlin

ed by the artist himself,” the

Gemäldegalerie said.

The museum added that it was

possible to identify changes made

while the work was painted. Exami-

nation of the Berlin painting found

more “modifications and inter-

ventions” by the artist than in the

Amsterdam landscape. That suggest-

ed that the Berlin work predated the

Amsterdam painting. Tree ring ana-

lysis of the wood panel on which the

work was painted also pointed to the

Amsterdam picture being later.

The director of the Berlin museum,

Dagmar Hirschfeld-

er, said Rembrandt

sometimes produced

two versions of a

work. “There are of-

ten pairs where you

get the impression

he’s trying the same

thing again in a different painting

style,” she said. The reworking in the

Berlin painting was also characteris-

tic of Rembrandt’s method, she

added. The new analysis showed that

a thundercloud had been moved, a

hill had been reduced in size and a

group of trees had been changed.

Rembrandt painted only a few

landscapes but they were ground-

breaking, the museum said, and “ex-

traordinarily atmospheric for land-

scape painting in the 17th century.”

The reappraisal has increased the

painting’s value to a double-digit

million-euro sum, affecting insur-

ance in case it is loaned to another

exhibition.

The painting will go on display

from Friday in an exhibition present-

ing David Hockney’s seasonal series

Three Trees near Thixendale along-

side selected landscapes from previ-

ous centuries.

The aim, the museum said, is to in-

vite the viewer to consider the par-

allels between Hockney’s art and the

work of those who inspired him.

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D e s t w t g h