A rare piece of one of the 20th century’s most radical architectural experiments was put on display in New York last month. Since July 10, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has been showcasing a fully restored capsule from Tokyo’s now-dismantled Nakagin Capsule Tower as part of an exhibition titled “The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower.”
The exhibition, which runs through July 12, 2026, takes up a spot in MoMA’s ground-floor galleries, where visitors can step up close to capsule A1305 — a rare survivor from the tower’s demolition — and get a sense of what life might have been like inside one of these compact, prefab pods.
Installation view of The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from July 10, 2025, through July 12, 2026. Photo: Jonathan Dorado. Courtesy of MoMa.org
From Concept to Reality
The Nakagin Capsule Tower was designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa as a prototype for the future: tiny living spaces that could be plugged in and out of a central core like memory cards. The building held 140 capsules in total, each around 100 square feet.
It was marketed to commuting businesspeople who needed a place to sleep in the city. The capsules were never replaced as planned and, over time, residents personalized them in all kinds of ways — layering a little humanity onto what started as a pretty sterile vision.
That tension between concept and reality is at the heart of MoMA’s show. Split into two colorful sections (orange for the tower’s early idealism, pink for everything that came after), the exhibition is more than just nostalgia.
Besides marketing brochures, Kurokawa’s original sketches and promotional videos, it also includes photographs of the capsules as they aged, video interviews with former residents as well as an interactive virtual tour of the entire building.
The highlight, though, is the only surviving architectural model from the original project. Capsule A1305 is one of only 14 units saved after the building was dismantled in 2022. The rest were either scrapped or scattered to museums around the world.
After undergoing six months of restoration by Kisho Kurokawa’s office, the capsule was acquired by MoMA in 2023 and was shipped to New York by boat.
“It’s a very rare opportunity where we get to show visitors on a one-to-one scale, a piece of architecture, rather than just showing drawings or photographs or videos,” said Evangelos Kotsioris, an assistant curator at MoMA in an interview with Dezeen.
Installation view of The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from July 10, 2025, through July 12, 2026. Photo: Jonathan Dorado. Courtesy of MoMa.org
A Legacy Reimagined
The Nakagin Capsule Tower was ultimately dismantled due to deteriorating infrastructure and a lack of funding for preservation. Tenants voted to sell their units individually, and by late 2024, plans were announced for a luxury hotel on the original site in Ginza.
MoMA members will have special access to enter the restored capsule during activation events throughout the year. For everyone else, The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower offers a rare, up-close look at a design that imagined — and for a time, embodied — a very different way of living.
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