Exhibition 'Make Do With Now: New Directions in Japanese Architecture'

The Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio of the Università della Svizzera italiana is pleased to present, from April 11, 2025 until October 5, 2025, the exhibition ‘Make Do With Now: New Directions in Japanese Architecture’, promoted by the USI Academy of Architecture, produced by the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum.
Curated by Yuma Shinohara

The exhibition explores the ideas and projects of a new generation of Japanese architects and urban practitioners who began their careers following the 2011 earthquake and the Fukushima disaster. Turning their marginal position into a strength, these young architects have developed critical, ecological, and social engaged practices, demonstrating that it is possible to “make do” creatively by working with limited resources, existing buildings, and using found materials. Moving away from the traditional image of the architect-author, they are redefining the profession through a socially and critically engaged approach.

Ahead of the exhibition, the Academy of Architecture has hosted a series of five public lectures from February 20 to April 10, 2025, featuring five architectural studios active in Japan today, whose projects are presented in the exhibition. 

THE EXHIBITION
‘Make Do With Now: New Directions in Japanese Architecture’ introduces the thinking and projects of a new generation of architects and urban practitioners working in Japan today. Born between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s, the architects featured in the exhibition largely entered professional practice following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster. This is a generation that must grapple with a range of urgent problems currently facing the country, including a declining, graying population and an emptying countryside; the proliferation of vacant houses across the nation; profit-driven urban development, mostly without the involvement of architects; a stagnant economy; and, of course, the global climate crisis.

Instead of being humbled into resignation, however, many architects of this cohort are choosing to confront these challenges head-on. Turning their marginalized position into a strength, they are developing a range of critical, ecological, and social practices that creatively “make do” – with limited resources, with found materials, or with existing spaces. In contrast to the clean lines and minimalist spaces most recently associated with contemporary Japanese architecture, these projects pursue a decidedly different aesthetic politics that isn’t afraid to leave things rough around the edges. Whether working from the periphery, exploiting gaps in the system, or occupying roles in the process that have previously been overlooked, these practitioners are articulating a new architectural agency that radically departs from the traditional image of the architect-author.

These approaches coming out of Japan today are anything but a marginal phenomenon, but rather hold crucial relevance for a world that is coming to terms with a future beyond a paradigm of constant growth. In this sense, these Japanese positions form an important contribution to a global discussion. They demonstrate that to ‘make do’ by no means signalizes a lack; rather, they make us realize the creative flourishing that follows when we recognize that what we have is already more than enough.

What can be seen in the exhibition?
The exhibition route includes a first section of twenty representative projects, all started or completed in the last five years. Diverse in both scale and program, the selection aims to provide an x-ray scan of contemporary architectural production in Japan and shows that it is difficult to reduce the various attitudes and concerns of this generation of architects to a single issue. Rather, the image that emerges is that of a generation engaged in a search for new models of architectural engagement in an effort to articulate an adequate response to the challenges facing the profession and society at large today. Nonetheless, it is possible to identify certain interests and tendencies among the featured projects. 

This section features projects by: GROUP, Masaaki Iwamoto / ICADA, Ishimura + Neichi, Norihisa Kawashima / Nori Architects, Chie Konno / t e c o, Lunch! Architects, Murayama + Kato Architecture / mtka, Fuminori Nousaku Architects, Jumpei Nousaku Architects, Shun Takagi / Root A, Rui Itasaka / RUI Architects, Studio GROSS, SSK, Keigo Kawai / TAB, Tsubame Architects, Maki Yoshimura / MYAO Shigenori Uoya, VUILD, Suzuko Yamada, Maki Yoshimura / MYAO.

The second section of the exhibition presents the work and thinking of five young architecture practices working in Japan today, each embodying a distinct approach to the question of the architect’s role in society: Mio Tsuneyama + Fuminori Nousaku Architects (Tokyo), 403architecture [dajiba] (Hamamatsu), CHAr (Tokyo), tomito architecture (Yokohama) und dot architects (Osaka). Here, the focus is on process and approach: what are young architects in Japan thinking as they design? How do they work, and where? And what alternative visions of what architecture can be – and do – might come into view as we observe their work?
The profiles unite photographs, films, models, and other materials from the offices to provide holistic portraits of their process. In a series of video portraits developed with Studio GROSS (Anne Gross and Sebastian Gross) for this exhibition, the architects explain their thinking in their own words.

New Opening Hours
Thursday - Friday
2:00 p.m - 6:00 p.m
Saturday - Sunday
10:00 a.m - 6:00 p.m
Monday - Wednesday
Closed (open by reservation for groups and school classes)

Summer closure: from July 14 to August 20, 2025
Holidays and special openings, please check the website HERE.

OPEN DAYS AND GUIDED TOURS
During the exhibition, the Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio has scheduled lectures, encounters, open days and guided tours.
Specific information on these events will be communicated in due course and available on the website www.tam.usi.ch.

Open days (free admission)

• Sunday, 4 May 2025, 10:00–18:00 
• Sunday, 18 May 2025, 10:00–18:00 
  International Museum Day, with guided tour
• Sunday, 1 June 2025, 10:00–18:00 
• Sunday, 6 July 2025, 10:00–18:00 
• Sunday, 7 September 2025, 10:00–18:00 
  MAM Network Day with special event
• Sunday 14 September 2025, 10:00–18:00 
  European Heritage Days
• Sunday, 5 October 2025, 10:00–18:00 
  Exhibition finissage

Free guided tours of the exhibition Make Do With Now
In collaboration with students from the Academy of Architecture: 

• Saturday, 3 May 2025, at 11:00 
• Saturday, 31 May 2025, at 11:00 
• Saturday, 5 July 2025, at 11:00 
• Saturday, 6 September 2025, at 11:00 
• Saturday, 4 October 2025, at 11:00
  On these dates, guided tours are free, while admission to the exhibition is subject to a fee.

Guided tours with the curator Yuma Shinohara (in English)
Dates will be announced via newsletter.

Guided tours for groups (ITA, ENG, GER, FR) – by reservation

For information and bookings, please contact: eventi.tam@usi.ch