Above: a portrait of Atelier Bow-Wow Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima (photo courtesy Atelier Bow-Wow)
Like Aldo Rossi, Robert Venturi and Kazuo Shinohara, Atelier Bow-Wow's first thematic writings and practice begin with observations on urbanisation. In their Pet Architecture Guide Book they observe post-World-War-II Tokyo's chaotic, random urban "city plan". They note and incorporate the contingencies of the surrounding city's increasing suburbanisation and the unplanned nature of Tokyo's new growth. Atelier Bow-Wow's initial mini-architecture interventions make use of "leftover gaps" in Tokyo's urban fabric, and relate contextually to the surrounding unplanned juxtapositions of commercial buildings, street signage and cheaply constructed new residential apartment blocks. These works are reminiscent of Venturi's early highway-sited buildings, which incorporate into their composition the facades of surrounding commercial buildings. Atelier Bow-Wow's understanding of modern Tokyo is also very influenced by Kazuo Shinohara, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto's teacher. Shinohara wrote extensively on the chaos of post-World-War-II Tokyo: utilising the mathematics of chaos theory he saw the Japanese city in terms of "randomness, fuzziness, fractals and chaos". Atelier Bow-Wow's approach to the Tokyo situation combines Shinohara's observation of urban chaos with Venturi's attention to the vernacular context of the surrounding architecture. Atelier Bow-Wow's house designs are also influenced by the American architect Charles Moore. Both Venturi's and Moore's houses refer to the traditional American wooden "shingle-style" vernacular. Lighting is a major factor in Atelier Bow-Wow's works. In their house designs, the lighting usually fluctuates continuously due to the influence of changing outdoor light conditions. The use of both side windows and light filtering through wood slits in semi-open ceilings creates a complex mixture. A good example of Venturi's use of manneristic composition is his mother's house from 1961, where the stairs begin extremely wide and then radically diminish as they approach the top in manneristic forced perspective. More recent works of Atelier Bow-Wow involve landscape and ecological concerns. An example is the Hanamidori Cultural Center in Tokyo, which disseminates knowledge about "green culture", using workshops, exhibitions and archives as well as a cafe meetingplace. The centre is placed under the earth, covered on the top by a green lawn park-scape. This cultural centre can be related to the Superstudio-influenced works from the 1970s by Emilio Ambasz, which create an underground, landscaped architecture. An example is his proposed Phoenix Museum of History. Atelier Bow-Wow's ecological study centre is a complex mixture of glass, light and landscape architecture. Escalators, in terms of the human body's movement in public space, are also an important element in Atelier Bow-Wow's urban projects. In their book Echo of Space/Space of Echo they talk about how the continuous flux of escalators and stairs enhance urban space. This continuous movement of individuals in flowing crowds creates the urban context of transitional space in Tokyo's new architecture of subways, shopping streets and shopping malls. Dan Graham
One of the most influential conceptual artists of his time, Dan Graham currently lives in New York.