Summer 2026 | 6 credit points
Studio: Wilkinson, 22 January 2026 | Japan, 24 January – 05 February 2026 | Wilkinson, 11 February 2026
On 24 January 2026, staff and students travelled to Tokyo for the second Rothwell travelling elective with Atelier Bow-Wow. Rothwell Academic Coordinator Lee Stickells and Rothwell Postdoctoral Fellow Amina Kaskar led the group in Japan, supported professionally by Katy McEwen and Lynn Masuda.
Before departing for Tokyo, students explored the work and ideas of Atelier Bow-Wow—including behaviorology, architectural ethnography and the urban rural commons—to prepare for their field studies. They selected precedent drawings to test techniques in the field and designed mobile drawing kits for working on the move in Japan. Five groups shaped the project around the themes of Wood, Water, Food, Mobility and Textiles.Â
In Japan, each group investigated cultural practices and everyday rituals that generate design typologies across rural and urban landscapes. They examined how materials and architectural systems support social and labour practices, creating spaces for gathering and community.
Working in rural Kamanuma gave many students a transformative, hands-on experience. During their stay, they helped rehabilitate degraded rice terraces by clearing bamboo overgrowth and repairing and building drainage infrastructure. In just a few days, they could see the tangible impact of their work: the terraces were nearly ready for planting season.
Students also traced how the principles and techniques used to maintain the terraces shape experimental neo-vernacular building practices at the site and inform urban applications in Tokyo.
The group visited projects spanning rural and urban contexts: Kamanuma (Small Earth Association, Satoyama Design School); Koisura Buta Lab (an Atelier Bow-Wow project developed through ten years of ongoing, incremental collaboration); Shimokita Engai (community-managed urban meadows involving Folk landscape architects and Tsubame Architects); Art Farm Ikejiri (an urban community farm and ‘open commons’ created through the adaptive reuse of a defunct school); Kyodo House (a private house operated as an ‘open’ community resource that connects urban agricultural initiatives with rural networks); and Well Yokodai (cooperative housing conceived as an ‘international urban village’).Â
The elective concluded with a final review at Tsukamoto Lab (Tokyo Institute of Science). Guests included Fuminoro Nousaka (head of Nousaka Lab at Tokyo Metropolitan University and a former student of Tsukamoto Lab), Nancy Ji (University of Melbourne), Stuart Taylor (architect, Spaceman Architects, Tokyo) and Guillame Fass (Paris La Villette School of Architecture). Students presented an impressive body of collective drawing work and received valuable feedback from their hosts.
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Photo credit: Tomo Ishiwatari
