Over the past decades, Atelier Bow-Wow has grown into one of the most innovative architectural firms in the world. They are especially well known for their micro homes, which they integrate into the densely populated Japanese capital. Atelier Bow-Wow investigates and infiltrates the urban fabric. It designs buildings and structures that promote human interaction and reinforce existing social relationships.
Atelier Bow-Wow used the recent Bruges canal clean-up and the resulting opportunity for swimming as inspiration for its Bruges Triennial project. The architects designed a multifunctional floating platform that provided a venue for a variety of social activities. Members of Bruges' swimming clubs could use the sculpture's pontoons as starting and finishing points for competitions. But the platform also offered opportunities for lectures, exhibitions and recreation. In short, a multipurpose space in the heart of the city that rocks to the rhythm of the waters.
Typical for their practice, Bow-Wow chose a pragmatic approach to the project that reorients the existing urban environment in a sustainable manner.
This platform was constructed in collaboration with Architectuuratelier Dertien12.
Atelier Bow-Wow
Atelier Bow-Wow was founded in 1992 by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (b. 1965, Kanagawa, JP) and Momoyo Kaijima (b. 1969, Tokyo, JP). It studies the complex, often brutal logic of urban growth and creates architectural designs and studies that investigate the position of artifice and randomness within urban public spaces.