Architect Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and the firm he cofounded with partner Momoyo Kaijima, Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow, just unveiled the BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York, a mobile structure currently in use as a public gathering space and generator for innovative ways to improve urban life. Tsukamoto, associate professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, discusses the pop-up think tank—which will travel to Europe and Asia over the next two years—and other recent international work by the firm, which is known for idiosyncratic yet highly usable residential projects in dense urban environments. Since 1992, Atelier Bow-Wow has designed and built more than 20 homes, public museums, and commercial buildings and published 11 books, including Pet Architecture Guide Book, which catalogues the multitude of odd, ungainly, but functional little buildings wedged into tiny sites around Tokyo.
Copresented by the Walker Art Center and University of Minnesota College of Design.