On August 31, Aki Ishida gave a lecture entitled “Encapsulated Masculine Dreams: The Cultural and Material Impermanence of the Nakagin Capsule Tower.”

The lecture charted the rise and fall of Nakagin Capsule Tower, which encapsulates the futuristic macho dreams of the 1970s. Its designer, Kisho Kurokawa, was the youngest founding member of the Metabolists, a group of avant-garde architects who reimagined how Japanese people would live, work, and play. Fifty years after completion, the tower has become a symbol of obsolescent masculinity.