Atelier Bow-Wow (Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima) explores the use and function of space within urban environments. As working architects in Tokyo, Bow-Wow developed the term "pet architecture"—a style of small, ad hoc, multi-functional structures that make the most of limited space, a phenomenon in densely developed cities like Tokyo that integrate need, improvisation and ingenuity. For over 10 years they have also created "micro public spaces," using the framework of art galleries and museum spaces to experiment with structure, movement and function.
Bow-Wow's newly commissioned project for REDCAT titled Small Case Study House is the culmination of an extended residency period in Los Angeles researching the Case Study House program and using this post-war project initiated by John Entenza and the Arts & Architecture magazine as a point of departure in thinking about domestic dwellings. Now infamous, the Case Study House program was a fertile period of experimentation in Southern California that enlisted architects to design (and build) low cost housing using pre-fabricated materials from the war industry. Informed by the principles of the program as well as the rich urban fabric of Los Angeles, Bow-Wow's installation will respond to contemporary forms of the house as it relates to economic and ecological conditions, ideas of customization and what Bow-Wow calls "architectural behaviorology."
Small Case Study House consists of three microstructures—BBQ coliseum, sunset house and hammock house—as models whose form is dictated by specificity of use, environmental context and human engagement. All structures are built with salvaged wood from deconstructed homes in the Los Angeles area supplied by the non-profit organization ReUse People. In a rampant consumer-based contemporary society, Bow-Wow's project quietly calls into question an ecological problem of excess and waste while reactivating architecture to the rudimentary functions of shelter, sustenance and play. This is Bow-Wow's first solo exhibition in the U.S.
Atelier Bow-Wow was established by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima in 1992. Tsukamoto (b.1965, Kanagawa, Japan) and Kaijima (b.1969, Tokyo) have participated most recently in the 2008 Liverpool Biennial, Psycho Buildings at The Hayward Gallery in London and the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Bow-Wow's newly commissioned project for REDCAT titled Small Case Study House is the culmination of an extended residency period in Los Angeles researching the Case Study House program and using this post-war project initiated by John Entenza and the Arts & Architecture magazine as a point of departure in thinking about domestic dwellings. Now infamous, the Case Study House program was a fertile period of experimentation in Southern California that enlisted architects to design (and build) low cost housing using pre-fabricated materials from the war industry. Informed by the principles of the program as well as the rich urban fabric of Los Angeles, Bow-Wow's installation will respond to contemporary forms of the house as it relates to economic and ecological conditions, ideas of customization and what Bow-Wow calls "architectural behaviorology."
Small Case Study House consists of three microstructures—BBQ coliseum, sunset house and hammock house—as models whose form is dictated by specificity of use, environmental context and human engagement. All structures are built with salvaged wood from deconstructed homes in the Los Angeles area supplied by the non-profit organization ReUse People. In a rampant consumer-based contemporary society, Bow-Wow's project quietly calls into question an ecological problem of excess and waste while reactivating architecture to the rudimentary functions of shelter, sustenance and play. This is Bow-Wow's first solo exhibition in the U.S.
Atelier Bow-Wow was established by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima in 1992. Tsukamoto (b.1965, Kanagawa, Japan) and Kaijima (b.1969, Tokyo) have participated most recently in the 2008 Liverpool Biennial, Psycho Buildings at The Hayward Gallery in London and the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale.
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