VIENNA.- Atelier Bow-Wow was founded in Tokyo in 1992 by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima, Yoichi Tamai joined the studio in 2015. In addition to thorough theoretical research and elaborate architectural projects, the studio regularly realises exhibitions and discursive programmes. This interdisciplinary approach echoes the history of the Secession in Vienna, whose founders were deeply committed to the idea of collaboration between different artistic forms – architecture, music, and visual art – in the spirit of the Gesamtkunstwerk. To this day, the Secession’s board and membership include both artists and architects.

Atelier Bow-Wow are especially known for coining the term Pet Architecture, which refers to micro-buildings occupying small, irregular plots in the interstices of urban space. These structures, squeezed into the gaps between existing buildings, are shaped by creativity, pragmatism, and an ethos of sustainability.

A central principle in Atelier Bow-Wow’s exploration of the relationship between humans and the built environment lies in the reuse of dormant resources found on-site – whether natural materials or discarded objects – and the creation of community through collaboration with local populations. The studio’s projects always begin with the specific materials and networks available in a given place, at a given point in time.

Central to their approach is the term ‘suturing’, which also gives the exhibition its title. To suture means ‘to sew’ or ‘to stitch’. In their Manifesto of the Suturists, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Fuminori Nousaku, and Norihisa Kawashima – members and collaborators of the architectural studio Atelier Bow-Wow – write:

‘We suture

We do not separate subject and object, being and relation, but stay in their mixed state, suturing this networking ourselves.

We suture

We are made by what we make, and we make the environment in which we live. We suture on the basis of this recursion of self and environment.

We proclaim the above to the world.’

Atelier Bow-Wow proposes a form of architecture capable of creating relationships and environments in harmony with nature based on a mindful use of local resources and a deep sense of care for the networks in which architecture is embedded.

This vision also informs the intervention in the entrance hall of the Secession, where Atelier Bow-Wow respond directly to the building’s architecture – not as a form of confrontation, but as a careful act of inhabitation. One wall is entirely covered in reed in reference to thatched roofs, a traditional technique with roots in building cultures across geographical and historical landscapes. Reed is a particularly sustainable and environmentally friendly material. For this installation, reed produced in Austria was used and expertly crafted by a local specialist. In the spirit of knowledge-sharing and collective learning, a workshop with a professional thatcher will take place in the context of the exhibition.

In the Grafisches Kabinett, a historical overview of thirty Atelier Bow-Wow projects is presented through photographs, architectural drawings, and sketches that showcase the studio’s key approaches and methodologies. One defining strategy is cooperation; an early example is a 1992 competition entry in Kumamoto Prefecture, where a small kiosk for selling locally grown vegetables was designed in collaboration with a local forestry association. The building is made of wooden beams and frames, with the soil from the field compacted between them. This way of creating architecture together with the people of the region and using local materials and techniques provided the foundation for subsequent endeavours.

An important part of Atelier Bow-Wow’s practice is disaster relief work. For example, in 2011, in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, Atelier Bow-Wow worked with fellow architects to establish a reconstruction support platform called ArchAid five days after the disaster.

Another important site of Atelier Bow-Wow’s work is the village of Kamanuma, located about ninety minutes by car from central Tokyo. Here, rice is cultivated under a model of collective ownership. The village is situated within a satoyama – a traditional Japanese rural landscape where agriculture exists in balance with the regenerative capacity of nature. In this context, agriculture, forestry, and construction are not hierarchically separated but interwoven into a complex network of mutual dependencies. As part of the Tsukamoto Laboratory, led by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, the project not only revived the satoyama principle; one of the first collective activities was the restoration of a thatched roof on an old farmhouse. The professors and students of the subsequently established Satoyama School of Design (SSD) now work in collaboration with four universities to revitalize fallow fields, preserve the landscape, repair existing structures, and construct tiny houses using randomly found materials – such as reclaimed building components, discarded furniture, or fallen trees.

For Atelier Bow-Wow, architecture is not a static thing but a living part of a broader network in which objects, people, neighbouring buildings, weather conditions, and site-specific dynamics actively shape the design process. Architecture is conceived as a vital node within a larger ecosystem. Their work seeks to mend the growing alienation between humans, objects, and the natural world – a condition accelerated by the ideology of capitalist growth. At its core, their practice addresses one fundamental question: how might architecture and society be reimagined in light of an ecological transformation?

Atelier Bow-Wow is an architecture studio from Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1992.

Exhibition design: Momoyo Kaijima, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, and Yoichi Tamai (Atelier Bow-Wow)

Collaborators: Tazuru Harada, Penelope Gregoire (The chair of Architectural Behaviorology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

Programmed by the board of the Secession

Curated by Haris Giannouras & Damian Lentini