OpenSea is now hosting a Nakagin Capsule Model NFT Auction | News

Tokyo’s beloved Nakagin Capsule Tower may get its speculated second digital life after all thanks to a new metaverse project from the firm of original designer Kisho Kurokawa Architect and Associates (KKAA) and NFT platform OpenSea.

In an exclusive collaboration with LAETOLI Corporation’s KABUKI-X venture, the firm is now auctioning off the rights to reconstruct the founder’s most famous Metabolic work in both the physical and digital realms just months away from the neglected tower’s ongoing demolition, which formally started at the end of April. Bidders will have the chance to reconstruct the tower inside the metaverse and at the global location of their choice using CAD data and a digital model of the tower produced in Revit by design partners BDP.

The restrictions are limited to the local zoning laws and regulations of the country the holders of the rights to “real space” choose to build in. This otherwise opens up the potential resale and leasing of the rights to the structure, which BDP says can create an adjustment number of new reconstructions that vary with consideration of size, function and limited total number of pods. (The 140 surviving versions of these are also bought at auction by various institutions.)

“We want to create a society where cultural values ​​are respected and what people want to see is preserved,” LAETOLI’s managing director, Yoshitaka Kataoka, said in a statement. “Using new technologies like blockchain and NFT, we believe we have created the opportunity to protect our heritage for future generations.”

Bidding for the rights to both versions starts at 1 ETH (equivalent to approximately $1,844 USD). The auction ends on 20 October at 12:15 p.m. EDT. Kataoka says of the project’s utopian foundation “we hope that this auction will ensure that this historic masterpiece will be rebuilt somewhere in the world by those who value the idea of ​​metabolism and are able to optimize his design for the betterment of society.”