27/03/2023, 18:20 https://www.lidovky.cz/ceska-pozice/bow-wow-examines-the-behaviors-of-buildings.

A110211_135652_pozice_5359/tisk

Bow-Wow examines the ‘behaviors’ of buildings

GUEST WRITER
11. ÚNORA 2011 16:37

Architecture duo Bow-Wow’s idea of ‘behaviorology’ can be seen in doll-house sized models of some of their
unique buildings

For Tokyo-based atelier Bow-Wow, creating a house has something to do with behavior. Architecture can potentially synthesize different
elements — including the behavior of human beings, the behavior of natural elements (light, air and wind, heat) and the behavior of
buildings — into the physical entity of one building.

“Designing the house is [a way] to find a better framework that lets these elements — human, nature, building — behave in their
preferable, delightful way,” Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, one of the two partners in Bow-Wow told Czech Position.

In House Behaviorology, Bow-Wow’s exhibition at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery, viewers can observe the frame these behaviors took in
remarkably detailed, 1:20 models of 19 of the atelier’s realized houses.

“House Behaviorology is the collection of houses designed within this concept of behaviorology],” Tsukamoto said. “And [the exhibition
is] also trying to discover the shared aspect in these houses.” Behaviorology is the study of behavior. According to Bow-Wow, in the case
of architecture it is the attempt to synthesize different behaviors into the physical entity of one building.

https://www.lidovky.cz/ceska-pozice/bow-wow-examines-the-behaviors-of-buildings.A110211_135652_pozice_5359/tisk 1/3
27/03/2023, 18:20 https://www.lidovky.cz/ceska-pozice/bow-wow-examines-the-behaviors-of-buildings.A110211_135652_pozice_5359/tisk

Bow-Wow was established in 1992. Aside from Tsukamoto, the duo includes Momoyo Kaijima, a fellow graduate of the Tokyo Institute of
Technology. They have built over 20 houses, public museums and commercial buildings — mainly in Tokyo, but also in Europe and the
United States. Their portfolio includes urban research and public artworks as well.

Their original inventions include the “Furnicycle,” which is part bicycle and part furniture, based on their observations of day-to-day life
on the streets of Shanghai; and “White Limousine Yatai,” an elongated version of the normally small yatai, or mobile restaurant. The
latter is an attempt to raise the rank of this low-status restaurant while simultaneously bringing people together as this 10-meter-long
restaurant requires more than the yatai’s usual one set of hands.

Atlas helped put them on the map

It was two of their numerous publications, however, that put them on the map. “They got very famous when their ‘atlases of the species’
of Tokyo architecture, were published in 2001 under the titles of ‘Made in Tokyo’ and ‘Pet Architecture Guide Book,’” architect Osamu
Okamura told Czech Position. He is also editor-in-chief of architecture magazine Era 21 and is scheduled to give two lectures during the
House Behaviorology exhibition.

The books were the result of Bow-Wow’s urban exploration of Tokyo. The first book examines hybrid buildings in the city. The second
looks at Tokyo’s tiniest buildings, which have been squeezed into the city’s leftover urban spaces.

Several houses included in the exhibit have particularly small measurements, as they’ve been built into the dense fabric of Bow-Wow’s
home city, where available land is hard to come by and very expensive.

Gae House, which has a floor plan measuring 88.42 square meters, is characterized by its box-shaped body and slanted roof on one side.
Both were created under certain height and footprint regulations, which created a gap space in between them. To cover the space, Bow-
Wow built a horizontal window, which creates a diffused light in the upper floor’s interior.

“The behavior with the light is quite extraordinary,” Tsukamoto said in a lecture at the Barcelona Institute of Architecture in 2009. “[You]
feel like you are living with a very special light. You [also] have a view of the garden and there is a small hole for water to go down.”

Among the 13 other models of global urban detached houses included on this first of the exhibition’s two low tables is the Yimby House, a
residence and atelier built in California. The Droog Town House in Amsterdam is constructed as one big staircase. Bow-Wow’s own house
and atelier integrates public and private space.

The second display table contains villas and cottages in nature. Among them is Double Chimney, a wood house that was split into to
halves to bring more warmth and air into the area. Pony Garden, measuring 71.72 square meters was designed around the client’s request
to have a view of her pony throughout the house.

Along with its intriguing behaviorology concept, the exhibition, which was one of the highlights of the prestigious Venice Architectural
Biennale in 2010, is further enhanced by the dollhouse-like details of the models and the construction plans, which are displayed on the
gallery’s walls.

“Their realization plans are drawn to the very details of flower pots, cats, coffee-cups and slippers under the bed,” Okamura said. "There
is a good portion of humor in it, too, as the name of the studio suggests.”

Be one with the models

Bow-Wow’s Tsukamoto encouraged viewers to immerse themselves. “Please rapt yourself into the world of the 1/20 scale models and feel
the consistency of the treatment of scale and spatial relationship,” Tsukamoto said.

The consistent themes that run throughout the houses are open spaces, both in the interior and exterior; roof-top terraces; details such as
built-in bookcases and perhaps the most notably consistency: a lack of walls, and rather, the use of stairs and the floors themselves to
connect spaces.

“The intricacy of Tsukamoto and Kaijima’s interiors can be accounted for by the fact that they do not create Bow-Wow: House
primary spaces. Instead, they design interiors with nothing but mediatory devices and ancillary spaces,” Behaviorology
Terunobu Fujimori, architect and architectural historian, wrote in “Atelier Bow-Wow: Behaviorology,” Bow- Jaroslav Fragner Gallery
Wow’s most recent publication. “In short, their work is not an architecture of spaces, but an architecture of Betlémské nám. 5a, Prague
relationships.” 1
Through April 3, 2011
Along with the models and drawing plans, an accompanying program supports the exhibition. Short movies,
Lectures:
one about atelier Bow-Wow and the other reflecting on Tokyo’s architectural developments (“Tokyo
March 9 at 7 p.m.: Osamu
Metabolizing,” also shown at the 2010 Venice Biennale), are projected on two walls before the gallery’s main
Okamura: Postwar
space. Upstairs in the gallery, a media room includes books and a movie on contemporary Japanese
Architecture in Japan, JFG
architecture. Okamura is scheduled two present two lectures in March. The culmination of the exhibition is a
March 23 at 7 p.m.: Osamu
lecture by Bow-Wow’s Momoyo Kaijima
Okamura: Contemporary
Joann Plockova is a Prague-based freelance writer Alternative Architecture in
Japan, JFG
April 4 at 7 p.m.: Momoyo
Kaijima: Atelier Bow-Wow
https://www.lidovky.cz/ceska-pozice/bow-wow-examines-the-behaviors-of-buildings.A110211_135652_pozice_5359/tisk 2/3
27/03/2023, 18:20 https://www.lidovky.cz/ceska-pozice/bow-wow-examines-the-behaviors-of-buildings.A110211_135652_pozice_5359/tisk

/ Behaviorology, kino
Světozor

AUTOR: GUEST WRITER

Témata: ateliér, Jaroslav Fragner, Tokio, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Šanghaj, USA
Sdílet na Facebooku
Sdílet na Twitteru

© 2023 MAFRA, a.s., ISSN 1213-1385 © Copyright ČTK, Reuters, AFP. Publikování nebo šíření obsahu je zakázáno bez předchozího souhlasu.

https://www.lidovky.cz/ceska-pozice/bow-wow-examines-the-behaviors-of-buildings.A110211_135652_pozice_5359/tisk 3/3