Atelier Bow-Wow

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1965. He studied architecture at Tokyo Institute of Technology, graduating from his undergraduate degree in 1987. Tsukamoto travelled to Paris to be a guest student at L’Ecole d’Architecture de Belleville (UP 8) from 1987–88 and in 1994 he completed a Doctor of Engineering program at Tokyo Institute of Technology.

In 2000 Tsukamoto became an associate professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and in both 2003 and 2007 he was a Kenzo Tange Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at Harvard GSD. Also in 2007 and again in 2008 he was a visiting Associate Professor at The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Momoyo Kaijima was born in Tokyo in 1969. She received her undergraduate degree from the Faculty of Domestic Science at Japan Women's University in 1991 and both her graduate (M.Eng.) and post-graduate degrees were from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1994 and 1999. She was also a guest student at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH) from 1996-1997.

In 2000 Kaijima became an assistant professor, and in 2009 an associate professor, at the Art and Design School of the University of Tsukuba. Like Tsukamoto, in 2003 she was a visiting faculty (as a design critic) in the Department of Architecture at Harvard GSD and between 2005 and 2007 she was also a guest professor at ETH Zürich. In 2010 she was the Architect in Residence at the University of Auckland.

In the spring of 2014, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto signed on to be a member of the Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition jury.^[1]

"Pet Architecture" is a term Atelier Bow-Wow uses for the buildings that have been squeezed into left over urban spaces. Buildings with curious shapes and inventive solutions for windows, drainage, and air-conditioning often arise in these urban situation.^[2] One example of this is the Coffee Saloon Kimoto in Tokyo, a triangular structure with a capacity of four customers.

Most of those buildings are cheaply built, and therefore are not spectacular in design and they use not the forefront of technology. However we are attracted by them. It's maybe because their presence produces a relaxed atmosphere and make us feel relieved. Pets, companion animals of the people, are usually small, humorous and charming. We find what we call "pet architecture", architecture having pet like characteristics, existing in the most unexpected places within the Tokyo city limits.^[3]

Atelier Bow-Wow documented these micro buildings in detail through photographs, elevations, maps, 3D sketches, and brief descriptions in their publications “Pet Architecture Guide Book” and “Made in Tokyo."^[4]

Behaviorology is the study of functional relationships between ‘behaviour’ and its many independent variables in the determining environment. Behaviorological accounts are influences and based on the current social and physical environment in which the behaviour occurs, the personal history of the behaving organism, and the behavioural capacity of the given species. It is also a clever means of integrating the ‘built’ environment across different scales; furniture, architecture, structures of civil engineering and urban planning.^[5] “It positions projects within an ecosystem of behaviours as elements which participate in spatial production.”^[6]

The behaviorologist discovers the natural laws which govern and dictate behaviour. Through this knowledge they then develop behaviour engineering technologies relevant to behaviour in many fields including architecture, education, and entertainment.^[7] It can be applied to natural elements as well as buildings (not only humans).

Architecture firm Atelier Bow-Wow is famous for its interpretation and use of the concept of behaviorology in its design work. According to founders Tsukamoto and Kaijima, behaviorology defines architectural expression through the understanding of the complex relationship between people (the inhabitants of a space), the built environment, and urban space. Bow-Wow's Behaviorology goes further than ‘form follows function’: it bases form on the behaviour of both the building and natural elements. The study of a building's articulation, inherent properties of elements such as heat, wind, light, water and the understanding of individual and common human behaviour leads to a stronger localized architecture.^[8]

Micro Public Spaces are devices proposed by Atelier Bow-Wow which create social platforms. Micro Public Space shows Atelier Bow-Wow's way of thinking about the space, i.e.social space, a concept influenced by Henri Lefebvre that discusses 'a space is produced neither by architects nor by city planners, nor by the users who live in space: space is not consumer-generated but space-generated',^[9] therefore, 'it is not people who creates space, but social spaces that use people to bring themselves into being'.^[10]

Atelier Bow-Wow creates Micro Public Spaces using the framework of an art-exhibition. In the projects on Micro Public Spaces, such as Manga Pod (2002), Furnicycle(2002) and White Limousine Yatai (2003), Atelier Bow-Wow tries to create the new behaviours of the city and people through small furniture or non-enclosed public spaces that encourage active user participation and support individual body experience and behaviour. So their projects construct situation rather than objects that they adjust 'the posture of people and their layout in a space'.^[11]

Therefore, Micro Public Space, as the term micro indicates, is an attempt to take even the smallest space or object that is officially public and to add individual layer to it as making use of the space.

"Da-me Architecture" (no-good architecture) is a term coined by Atelier Bow Wow, to describe the buildings in Tokyo which prioritizes a "stubbornly honest" response to specific site conditions and program requirements, without insisting on architectural aesthetic and form.^[12] Hence, these tend to disregard the need to express "good taste" or to "work with nostalgia" (pre-conditioned meanings, categories or looks), resulting in a "hybrid, junky architecture"^[12] that is regarded by some critics and practitioners as "disgusting" or "shameless". However, according to Atelier Bow Wow, "Shamelessness can become useful", as these buildings intricately report of the urban condition of the city. These, in fact, "epitomize a creative new, adaptive aesthetic that can be said to be the quintessence of Tokyo."^[13]

"Da-me Architecture" represents the most cost-effective and efficient solutions requiring minimum effort, which is expected in a place like Tokyo.^[14] Constructed in the most practical manner with the possible elements on site, “Da-me” often utilizes "spatial by-products" or whatever is at hand, like under concrete engineering structures, rooftops or gaps between buildings etc. “Da-me architecture also becomes about the juxtaposition of types, resulting in "cross-categorical hybrids" which are varied, completely unrelated but interdependent.^[14] An example would be the highway departmental store as mentioned in "Made in Tokyo" (a guidebook by Atelier Bow-Wow, further described below) which both belong in different categories, and have no relation in use, but exist in the same location because the traffic above and the shopping below share the same structure.

Such an existence seems an antithesis of aesthetics, history, classification and planning, but it is interesting and refreshing as the architecture is simply a physical functional construct that has arrived at this point through a desperation in attempts to respond to the here and now and not anything else.^[15]

Generational Typology (also ‘Machiya Metabolism’) is based on research into the building type known as machiya (traditional townhouses/merchant houses constructed in the Edo period), specifically in the Kanazawa area of Japan. This area is optimal for the investigation into the transformation of these building types over time as the area was spared destruction from the earthquakes and effects of war during the 20th century. The machiya chosen for this research were not necessarily those designated for comprehensive historic preservation, but were “nameless machiya” – those that may have transformed due to more humble influences.^[16]

These examinations were undertaken to further develop the concept of ‘Behaviorology’ and stems from the understanding of the existence of different “timescales” and that these must be taken into consideration when observing the behaviour of various systems; a human being's psychological behaviour could be observed in a period of one day. A society group's routines could become apparent in a week, or a community's in a year. For buildings, its behaviour may only become apparent after documenting its transformations over decades or centuries.^[17]

From the investigations into these machiya, several generational typologies are described based on the behaviour and evolution of the machiya over time by being exposed to the “pressures of modernization, from its original formula”.^[18]

Void metabolism is an urban formula which focuses on void spaces which develop between buildings when they are rebuilt.^[19] In Tokyo small houses cover the land with greenery inserted in the gaps between. This is a highly sustainable urban form which regenerates itself; with privately owned properties. It can be considered a type of metabolism, though quite different in content than the 1960s architectural thought. At that time concepts focussed on the composition of the vertical core. We can see that architects believed that the construction of the city would be carried out effectively through a concentration of power and capital.^[20] However, the regeneration of houses revolve not around a core, but a void- the gap space between buildings. This would be determined by the initiatives of individual families, rather than the accumulation of central capital.

If the urban formula of void metabolism begins with Tokyo's first developments in the 1920s, then the oldest parts are already 90 years old. With the 26-year lifespan of houses, those in the original areas have, in theory, regenerated twice over.^[20] There are differences in lifespan, so today's situation can be said to include a mixture of first, second and third generation buildings. With this we witness a variety of building behaviours, reflecting the generational differences. Houses which are produced now are a part of the fourth generation, determined by the realities of void metabolism. Atelier Bow-Wow ask: “what therefore, should a fourth generation house be?”^[21]

1. Interior spaces be inviting for those who are not family members. 2. The quasi-exterior spaces be introduced in a positive manner. 3. The gap between neighbouring buildings be redefined.^[22]

Through text and photographs Behaviorology covers the majority of Atelier Bow-Wow's work up to 2010 including built projects, temporary exhibitions, art installations, architectural-furniture hybrids, and their research on architecture and urbanism. The book opens with an introductory statement by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto which gives his explanation of Atelier Bow Wow's concept of ‘behaviorology’ including their hypothesis that behavior could be central to the understanding of the links between human life, nature, and the built environment.

“Behaviorology brings about an immediate shift in subjectivity, inviting many different elements together and calling into question who or what may be the main protagonist of a space. Through this ecological approach our imagination follows the principles of nature and experiences space from a variety of perspectives. When one is surrounded by and synchronized to the liveable rhythms embedded in different behaviors – there is no experience quite so delightful.”^[23]

He then discusses several of the partnership's other key design theories and concludes the essay in a section titled ‘Possibilities for behaviorology’, which relates behaviorology to these theories and discusses it as an integral part of these concepts. Although their works have often been realised individually, to them this is in no way “schizophrenic; rather projects tend to contaminate, inform, and mutually develop one another”.^[24]

Following Tsukamoto's commentary, essays and a synopsis of each project are dispersed between an extensive number of large colour photographs of Atelier Bow Wow's works. Architectural historian turned architect Terunobu Fujimori's essay reflects particularly on how Atelier Bow Wow's research has informed their work, and their embodiment of the “eccentric gaze” which is discussed in relation to the architect Wajiro Kon and the Roadway Observation Society. “Their work is not an architecture of spaces, but an architecture of relationships”.^[25] Art curator Meruro Washida's essay comments on Atelier Bow Wow's success in art,^[26] while Yoshikazu Nango^[27] and Enrique Walker's^[28] essays focus on the partnership's approach to urban and architectural research.

Made in Tokyo emerged from Atelier Bow Wow as a published text in 2001. It has also been represented in the form of catalogues, exhibitions, and even T-shirts. The bright yellow cover makes an immediate statement, echoing the impact the text has created by providing alternative methods for understanding the urban nature of Tokyo. Alternative that is, "as an antidote to the many Japanese publications dedicated to the extravagant buildings of the prosperous 'bubble' period."^[29]

"Anonymous buildings, not beautiful, and not accepted in architectural culture to date";^[30] this text documents an ongoing investigation which began in 1991, stemming from an observation made by Tsukamoto and Kaijima of an everyday building, "a narrow spaghetti shop wrenched into the space under a baseball batting centre."^[30] Usually overlooked in nature, 70 examples of ‘da-me architecture’ or ‘no-good architecture’ are catalogued. A wide variety of typologies are listed, serving as "a survey of nameless and strange buildings of this city."^[12]

Examples include the Sewage Courts, which function as a sewage disposal plant and sporting facilities, or the Highway Department Store, an expressway and department store. These buildings can only exist in Tokyo. "We thought that although these buildings are not explained by the city of Tokyo, they do explain what Tokyo is. So, by collecting and aligning them, the nature of Tokyo’s urban space might become apparent."^[12]

Each example is explained through diagrams and photographs, the text laid out in the form of a guidebook. The logic is that "a guidebook doesn’t need a conclusion, clear beginning or order. This seems suitable for Tokyo where the scene is of never ending construction and destruction."^[31]

The text can be viewed as a guide to the theories investigated by Atelier Bow Wow, as it expresses the basis of architectural and urban investigation which spurred on and underlies their work.

Bow-Wow from Post Bubble City is a publication that documents projects both in Japan and internationally.

The book is divided into twelve chapters each titled [DEPTH], [BUILT FORM], [SITE], [SMALLNESS], [VIEW], [CONVENTIONAL ELEMENT], [COMBINED ORIENTATION], [MICRO PUBLIC SPACE], [FLUX MANAGEMENT], [GAP SPACE], [HYBRID], and [OCCUPANCY].

Kaijima and Tsukamoto introduce these theories at the beginning of each chapter in the form of a dialogue between the two architects, and the theories can subsequently be seen applied in the projects that follow in each chapter. For example, the chapter [VIEW] addresses the importance of sight lines and views of occupants, however it does not discriminate between the picturesque scenery of Mt. Fuji and that of the densely built residential districts of Tokyo.^[32]

The book also explores the issues in the housing industry brought by the bubble economy in post WWII Japan, and Kaijima in particular was concerned with “how to relate architecture to the appearance of the individual”^[33] in terms of social and architectural positionings of the individual house.^[32]

"In Japan, throughout the period of high economic growth that followed the wartime defeat, then the bubble economy and its subsequent collapse, many detached houses have been built as works of architecture, and I acknowledge their collective cultural value. Yet at the same time, systematically and compositionally they occupy a fairly Manneristic realm, and in this I feel that they exist isolated from the reality of life."^[34]

The publication documents Atelier Bow-Wow's projects using photographs, diagrams, drawings, statistics and descriptions. The text of the book is both in original Japanese and also translated into English.

The use of the title “Graphic Anatomy” suggests that the book is that – a series of anatomical building illustrations – and nothing more; nothing less. Atelier Bow Wow assimilate themselves to anatomists, or botanists, whose skills in producing illustrations are so intricate and in a sense almost scientific that their work could not be regarded as “artworks”, since their techniques are so restricted, and any individual strand of creativity is suppressed in the process.^[35]

Building elements - both architectural and non-architectural – are depicted in their outlines, and labelled with a precise detailed notation of material, dimension, finishes, and textures. This almost mechanical depiction of architecture allows buildings to be liberated from the conventional subjectivity of its authors, and in turn presented in the “earnestness of observation.” ^[35]

A similar presentation style had been used in previous Atelier Bow Wow publications, such as “Pet Architecture” and “Made in Tokyo”, but in “Graphic Anatomy” their skills have been used to induce a new sense of spatial depth in house illustration, whilst simultaneously attempting to catalogue 24 previous house designs by Atelier Bow-Wow. The use of vertical and horizontal perspectives, together with magnified construction details allows for a new way of observing architecture not only as an object, but within that single frame consisting of many spatial compositions, between rooms and components, between interiors and their adjacent exterior environments, between actions and locations, and ultimately between humans and the spaces they inhabit.

“Architecture that opens its eyes and strains its ears to this diversity of spatial practice, encouraging and assisting it; this is the rediscovery of architecture itself. That is where the aims of Atelier Bow-Wow lie.”^[35]

Echo of Space / Space of echo is a compilation of essays and images that discuss the firm's ideologies concerning the balance between the ‘form of being’ (physical environment), and ‘form of doing’ (systems and relationships of the environment).

Individual chapters explore architectural spaces ranging in scale from urban planning to crafted objects to show “lively space where the forms of being and doing echo with each other” .”^[36]

Whimsical studies compare dog breeds to chair types (dogs and chairs, differences in expressions of hard and soft toys (animal figures)), and describe walking through stairways in train stations as a performance (transfer).

The book has a focus on the firm’s own environment of Tokyo as a ‘changing city’, but the observations and critiques made can be applied in all urban environments. The book pushes for a unity between environmental, human, and animal occupations of space. Echo of Space creates an overlying dreamlike analogy between architecture and an animal world, offering insight into architectural space from a uniquely Japanese perspective.

Echo of Space/Space of Echo was first published in 2009, 139 pages, contains colour photographs, text in Japanese with English translations by Kumiko Yamamoto.