Nakagin Capsule tower

[Guest]

Work in progress of Nakagin Capsule tower.  I’m about 5 days in from design in Fusion 360 to 3D printing to assembly. There are 140 individual capsules that need attaching (about 150 individual pieces in total). The base and tower 1 are complete (still have to make and add the windows from vinyl material).  I’m not sure to what extent I’ll weather it once it’s completed.

 

 

I think I posted this in the wrong thread. Moderator feel free to move it.

Edited May 25, 2022 by Bob Martin

[cteno4]

Bob,

 

excellent work, kudos! Great use of 3D printing. Deserved it’s own thread!

 

ive long dreamed of building the capsule tower. I messed with milling capsules from wood and then drilling a hole thru the center to do the window and core connection.

 

you need to sell these!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Madsing]

Really nice. I think that it will look much better than the real one!

[ED75-775]

Why is there not a 'Wow!' button for these posts?

 

Welcome aboard Bob, and brilliant work on the Nakagin towers. Did you decide to make this before or after they announced the demolition of the original? Either way, I look forward to seeing the finished model in due course.

 

Alastair

[Wolf]

Wow, awsome 3D print!

[Guest]

Thank you all for the comments.  Last week on NHK Japanology Plus, the topic was Showa era design and the Nakagin Tower.  That gave me the idea and incentive to get started on this project. I’m making it at approx 1:190 scale, as 1:150 would have been a bit overpowering.  Hopefully I’ll have it completed this weekend, and will post final pics.

[cteno4]

I remember the first time I saw it in person on my first trip to japan in 84. I spent a day wandering around Sumada river and harbor area and gardens there and came around a corner and wham there was the tower. Totally a “what the hell is that moment”, but fell in love with it. some day I’m going to have to get it done. Maybe this is the project that gets me on 3D printing!

 

would love some more pictures of how you did the model!

 

Kudos again!

 

jeff

[ShaunField]

Are you willing to share (or sell!) the file? I'd love to do this in Z

[Kamome442]

A beautiful looking model Bob, it may not be the prettiest building but it certainly has character and a lot of presence, thank you for sharing.

Out of interest is the lettering at the top added separately or part of the print?

 

@ShaunField There is a Z scale model that can be downloaded here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3714341

I haven't downloaded it myself (I may have to now I have seen Bob's model) but it looks pretty accurate to my untrained eye.

 

Joe

[Guest]

20 hours ago, cteno4 said:

I remember the first time I saw it in person on my first trip to japan in 84. I spent a day wandering around Sumada river and harbor area and gardens there and came around a corner and wham there was the tower. Totally a “what the hell is that moment”, but fell in love with it. some day I’m going to have to get it done. Maybe this is the project that gets me on 3D printing!

 

would love some more pictures of how you did the model!

 

Kudos again!

 

jeff

The good thing about Nakagin Tower is that it is very well documented. There are tons of photos and many 2D drawings and blueprints. And several 3D models already exist (some free, and some for pay). 

 

6 hours ago, Kamome442 said:

A beautiful looking model Bob, it may not be the prettiest building but it certainly has character and a lot of presence, thank you for sharing.

Out of interest is the lettering at the top added separately or part of the print?

 

@ShaunField

The lettering is printed separately and then glued on...

 

[Guest]

Finished up Nagakin Tower.  Took just over a week to complete.  I’m estimating about 62 hours of 3D printing (not counting all the prototypes and rejects), and another 5-6 hours of assembling all the pieces.

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by Bob Martin

[Guest]

So I’m working on v2.0 now. The first one just seemed a bit too small at 1:200. So this one will be 1:160 (nice 1.25x multiplier).  With the efficiencies learned making the first one, this one should take the same or less time to

make, especially with printing the capsules.

 

[Guest]

So I finally finished the 1:160 build.  With the larger size I was able to add more detail such as the corrugated cladding, firewall between capsules, fire escape, etc.

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Bob Martin

[maihama eki]

That's awesome.

 

On my last trip to Japan in 2019, I walked over to that area to take some photos. There were rumors of impending demolition at that time. It was a bit of gray winter morning and raining lightly. It was a little hard to get a clear photo because of the expressway.

 

I'm a fan of architecture, so I was sad to see it in disrepair and near its end.

 

 

[Guest]

It’s being dismantled at present…

 

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220527/p2g/00m/0na/034000c

[cteno4]

Gone… sad.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/xSNVQEkz86GCRTaZ9?g_st=ic

 

jeff

 

 

[Guest]

Yup, I walked by just a couple of days ago...

 

 

[bc6]

Very nice I wish I had a 3D printer, Im curious what 3D are you using?

[Beaver]

So this is what the future era buildings in Transport Tycoon and OpenTTD were based on.......

[Guest]

This was interesting video about the dismantling and refurbishment of the Nakagin Capsule modules…

 

 

[b.nice2000]

Thinking of working on a simplified version of this, shorter, only one tower, maybe designed for a corner block.

 

 Anyone interested ?

 

 Bob, do you have a clean, directly face-on image of the lettering on the towers, so I can convert it to an stl image, please.

[b.nice2000]

On 5/27/2022 at 6:18 PM, Kamome442 said:

A beautiful looking model Bob, it may not be the prettiest building but it certainly has character and a lot of presence, thank you for sharing.

Out of interest is the lettering at the top added separately or part of the print?

 

@ShaunField There is a Z scale model that can be downloaded here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3714341

I haven't downloaded it myself (I may have to now I have seen Bob's model) but it looks pretty accurate to my untrained eye.

 

Joe

 Hi, 

 I looked at that, but some of the .stl files for the pods seem badly formed.. unusable.. maybe it is just my slicer program ?!

 

Badly formed in TinkerCad, too. 😞  

 

 I will have to make my own.

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by b.nice2000

[b.nice2000]

Trying to figure out if its worth continuing with my single tower corner block version 

 

 Any comments on what I have so far ?

Edited December 19, 2023 by b.nice2000

[cteno4]

Looks good. I think using the more scattered capsule layout may help it retain some of its craziness just being a single tower. are you planning on printing out the capsules separately? Could have fun and put magnets in the tower and magnets on back and sides ends so you could reconfigure as you wanted!

 

A long time back I had made a prototype for a capsule out of a block of wood. I had drilled a hole the window size in one side and a larger hole from the back side amost to the capsule to create and interior space. Back hole then could also take wire easily for some lit capsules. Just sliding in a little U of paper with some bits glued onto the sides and bottom gave the effect of some stuff inside (even a circle of paper with some bits printed on it worked good down to almost. I had found some fused jewelry rings at just the round window diameter that were like .7mm thick. Punched circle of clear acetate glued behind the ring and the ring into the end window hole was just perfect. but I was happy with the prototype! All pre 3d printing and hence wood. Someone did make a papercraft model of it, but it felt a bit too papercrafty.
 

Project never moved forward as even with jigs to cut holes it was going to be a ton of work. Someday maybe as I love this building.

 

I do have a book here that has all the detail plans and dimensions and I think a folder of stuff I downloaded over the years if you want them or scans from the book for your sue.
 

Many folks do a bit of “selective compression” on urban scenes like this as to model them totally 1:1 it just needs too much space.
 

Plus some things when done at scale, even though totally perfectly to scale, just look wrong to the eye. This has to do with how we view a scaled down scene in both perspective and distance in real life than looking at a model. Many things like streets look too wide on a model when done to scale and this is because we are use to looking at streets from very up close at very oblique angle to the surface not from on high from 300’+ away. This distorts distances in our brains and we don’t perceive them as wide as we do or blocks as long as they are. Same with tall buildings we usually only see them in person looking almost straight up or from a very pulled back distance horizontally at a skyline. On a layout a big building to scale just feels too huge even though to perfect scale. Curbs are another example, we are use to looking at them close and they have a big visual impact. But on a layout a 1mm high curb (tall at 6” at that) just totally disappears and does not look right when you are viewing at a couple of feet (300’ scale distance). Our visual memory is fro 0-50’ for curbs at a very side on angle not at 300’ down from above. 
 

Hence, to get around this many model roads a bit narrow and blocks shorter, and bigger buildings a bit smaller to just “look right” to the minds eye (and fit them in usually tight model space). Modeling like this is all about tradeoffs. You need to decide if you want perfect scale or want to have scenes give a certain look and play with the viewer’s minds eye to create more scene than is there. Some like having things perfect to do up close photograph even though their usual view is 1-3’ away what might look good one way might not in the other as well. Again it’s tradeoffs. I enjoy playing with the viewer’s minds eye and ultimate compliment is when someone swears they saw something that was not there as you triggered their visual memory to fill in the gaps and make a richer scene in their brain.

 

cheers,
 

jeff

[b.nice2000]

Here  are a couple of pics of where I am up to. 

 

Capsules will be or three type, printed as separate capsules, and be connected to the tower using a square peg with a hole through it for possible lighting.

 

The capsules themselves will have a separate lens which could be printed in transparent if you like  

 

All capsules are 20 x 20 x 40 (mm) in 3 different configurations, (coloured differently on the pic)..

 

... but I may make a non-prototypical 20 x 20 x 60 option for the left hand side.  😉 

 

Still a work in progress... want to do a front frame for the windows down the bottom.

 

Any other suggestions more than welcome..

 

Still hunting for a clean version of the top emblem and writing.