Archinect - News

Atelier Bow-Wow’s first U.S. home features a large ‘umbrella’ roof in the Sierra Nevadas

2023-10-05T16:40:00-04:00

The acclaimed Japanese firm Atelier Bow-Wow has completed its first and only home built in the United States. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in California, the Mountain House sits as a “meticulously designed and thoughtfully crafted residential structure” in sixty acres of forest, according to the property’s realtors, Sotheby's.

Image credit: Nick Swartzendruber for Sotheby’s International Realty

The home sits on the site of a 19th-century gold mine which features wagon roads, trails, and seasonal streams. For the building’s design, Atelier Bow-Wow pursued a philosophy that “honors the environment, manifesting in a structure that treads lightly on the land and resources while maximizing its connection to a breathtaking landscape.”

Image credit: Kat Alves for Sotheby's International Realty

The entrance-facing facade is designed to be unassuming a...

Bracket [takes action]: submissions selected and new website launches!

2014-06-26T17:01:00-04:00

[takes action] is the fourth issue from Bracket, Archinect's collaborative publication with InfraNet Lab. Edited by a diverse collection of professionals from the intersecting worlds of architecture, environment, and digital culture, Bracket's content is sourced from an open-call for submissions.

Bracket [takes action] asks: What are the collective projects in the public realm to act on?

How have recent design projects incited political or social action? How can design catalyze a public, as well as forums for that public to act? What is the role of spatial practice to instigate or resist public actions? Bracket 4 provokes spatial practice’s potential to incite and respond to action today.

Peruse the selected entries (on the brand new website !): Bracket [takes action]

The Jury included:

Pier Vittorio Aureli, founding partner of Dogma, teaches at the AA School of Architecture in London and is visiting professor at Yale University.
Vishaan Chakrabarti, Principal at SHoP Architects.
Adam ...

Atelier Bow-Wow helps design Honolulu's first "indoor park" pavilion

2014-02-12T14:30:00-05:00

Interisland Terminal from Honolulu is on a mission to show the creative potential of their city's neighborhood with their latest endeavor known as Kaka'ako Agora. Located in the neighborhood of Kaka'ako, the project is an empty warehouse-turned-community space designed and planned in collaboration with Japanese architecture firm Atelier Bow-Wow.

Surrounded by plenty of local outdoor parks, Kaka'ako Agora will be the first "indoor park" for the Honolulu neighborhood. Once complete, the new space will serve as a local gathering area for various public programs, educational use, and other community-driven purposes.

Interisland Terminal recently launched a Kickstarter with a $15,000 goal to partially raise funds to purchase building materials for the pavilion's final pieces. The Kickstarter closes on Sunday evening, March 16.

For more details on Kaka'ako, click here.

Atelier Bow-Wow: Micro Public Space

2014-02-06T00:28:00-05:00

What is “micro public space”?...To date, Atelier Bow-Wow have presented, in exhibition settings, numerous installations featuring small structures, furniture and so on...More than just small buildings, these works are devices supporting the interaction and activities of all sorts of people, and while compact in size, create places open to a diverse audience".

Starting February 15 and running through May 6, 2014, a new exhibition grants a close look at the practice of Atelier Bow-Wow. The exhibit will explore various approaches to public spaces – via a combination of numerous “micro-public-space” works actually able to be experienced at the museum and case studies of Atelier Bow-Wow works. In addition to a selection of Atelier Bow-Wow's leading works to date, this exhibition will feature a new piece created specifically for Hiroshima.