What is it: A dining platform inside Japan's largest museum, the National Arts Center Tokyo (NACT)

Where is it: Japan, Tokyo, Roppongi district

When was it designed: 2006

Who designed it: Kisho Kurokawa Architect & Associates, in collaboration with architectural design firm Nihon Sekkei, Inc.

Why it was designed: To serve as a soaring, dramatic dining space in line with the museum's theme of being "empty;" the museum is informally referred to as the Empty Museum, partially because its seven gargantuan display rooms were designed without support columns, and partially because the museum has neither a curator nor a permanent collection. Instead, it hosts ever-rotating exhibitions with guest curators and collaborators.

Keep the conversation going at a coffee shop with these facts:

- Kurokawa died in 2007 but his firm lives on

- Kurokawa was an architect of the Metabolist Movement, which integrated the idea of organic biological growth into megastructures

- Kurokawa famously designed Tokyo's Nakagin Capsule Tower, a fine example of Metabolist architecture

The Nakagin Capsule Tower

Learn more about NACT's design:

- from Kurokawa's firm

- from Nihon Sekkai

- from Fritz Hansen