Unfolding A Nakagin Story Afishi y'Ikinyamakuru by Yang Tian

Unfolding A Nakagin Story Afishi y'Ikinyamakuru by Yang Tian is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 Igihembo cya A' Design Award cy'icyuma in Igishushanyo cy'Amashusho Competition Category.

IcyumaAmashusho· 2025

Unfolding A Nakagin Story Afishi y'Ikinyamakuru

by Yang Tian

Igihembo cya A' Design Award cy'icyuma Winner in Amashusho Category

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The Design

About Unfolding A Nakagin Story Afishi y'Ikinyamakuru

Kugira ngo hasubirwemo herekane Ubugezweho bw'Ubuyapani nyuma y'intambara, Kisho Kurokawa, umusore mu itsinda rya Metabolism, yibwiraga amazu agezweho nk'utunyabuzima tugiti cyatwo. Arimuka, agakora metabolism, arakura, kandi akanangira, bigatanga umuryango mushya aho abantu batagicumbagirwa mu mwanya uhamye. Gukingura Inkuru ya Nakagin ikoresha ikinyamakuru nk'igikoresho cyo kwandika no kwagura ubu bwiyumvire bwa Metabolism, binyuze mu gukingura kugira ngo byubake inkuru y'umujyi.

The Recognition

About the Igihembo cya A' Design Award cy'icyuma

Unfolding A Nakagin Story Afishi y'Ikinyamakuru ni uwegukanye Igihembo cya A' Design Award cy'icyuma, ishimwe ry'agaciro ritangwa ku bishushanyo byiza bihuza ibyo umwuga n'inganda bikeneye ku bihangano byashushanyijwe neza. Abegukanye icyuma bagaragaza ubuhanga bukomeye, ubumenyi bwihariye, imyumvire y'inzobere n'ubushobozi bwo guhanga bw'ababikoze. Unfolding A Nakagin Story Afishi y'Ikinyamakuru biteganyijwe ko izaba igihangano cyubahwa, gishimwa kandi gikundwa, gifatika kandi gifite udushya. Iki gishushanyo cyegukanye icyuma gihuza uburyo bwiza bukoreshwa mu nganda kandi gifite ibiranga bya tekiniki bifite ubushobozi, bifatanye n'ubumenyi n'impano. Unfolding A Nakagin Story Afishi y'Ikinyamakuru yubahwa kubera gukora neza, kandi yashushanyijwe kugira ngo inoze ubuzima, ifashe gutuma isi iba nziza.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: To re-identify Japan’s Modernity after the war, Kisho Kurokawa, the youngest Metabolism group member, imagines modern housing as individual cells. They move, digest, grow, and decay, informing a new society where people no longer live in a fixed space. Unfolding a Nakagin Story uses the newspaper as a medium to document and expand this Metabolism imagination, through “unfolding” to fabricate an urban story.
Dimensions & Packaging: Cover: 8" X 12"

Newspaper: 16" x 24"
Tags: Nakagin, Metabolism, Heritage, Housing, Urbanism
Production Technology: Graphics are done in Photoshop and Illustrator, the architecture is modeled in Rhino with a grasshopper plugin to change patterns and orientation.
Design Challenge: How can we capture the concept of Metabolism, where buildings can grow and shrink over time? How should I identify individual differences while the building comprises the same rectangular blocks? These are the two biggest challenges I need to solve. By using newspaper as the medium, one can feel the growth through unfolding the paper. One can also read individual stories despite repeating units by showing the interior information of selected blocks.
Research: Focusing on post-war Japanese architecture, Metabolism was the most influential architectural movement from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Kisha Kurokawa changed the Western design ideology of FORM (ETERNAL) based living style to TIME (CHANGING) based living space. The Nakagin Capsule Tower is an iconic architecture that not only embraces ephemeral but also changes a collective to an individual-oriented living style.
Inspiration: To embrace the idea of flexibility and updating, the newspaper is a great medium as a representation tool. Newspaper changes every day with new information and unfolding it to gain new information reinforces the idea of metabolism. By unfolding the project, each time, the capsule patterns, window colors, shapes, and orientation change within an oblique neutral grid.
Project Duration: Duration: 3 months

Location: Boston, MA, USA
Operation Flow: You could unfold it three times, each time, the capsule patterns, window colors, shapes, and orientation change within an oblique neutral grid, and 7 capsules have been highlighted to expose the interior activities of an individual with personal information next to it. Individual yet connected, neutral yet different for each capsule. You will experience the beauty of the Nakagin capsule tower after you unfold its stories!