Japan Studio
Designing and Building with Unknown Performances of Elements 2023
Kozo KADOWAKI, Ryoko IWASE, Takahiro KAI + Tazuru HARADA, Elias KNECHT
In the Fall semester of 2023, a practical design studio integrating both architectural design and construction was conducted by a teaching team consisting of Kozo KADOWAKI, an architectural theorist and practitioner; Ryoko IWASE, an architect and landscape designer; and Takahiro KAI, an architect, construction engineer, and craftsman. Students were tasked with designing a teahouse as an annex to the café by ETH Zurich’s Alumni Lounge and building it, wholly or in part, using reclaimed materials from construction waste.
The studio drew inspiration from the architecture of Japan, developed into a sophisticated circular economy where resources were fully used, recycled, and reused.
Materials came from former ETH buildings, wooden temporary structures designed for eventual dismantling and reuse. Long-serving as teaching spaces, they were dismantled due to high renovation costs and lack of alternative sites. Valued for their history and memory, their components were repurposed for up to four small teahouses and related furniture, designed and built by students in consultation with the lounge’s operators.
Japan Studio 2023 Booklet
Phase 1 - study of building elements
Interior of Huber Pavilion , 1988, Image by Richard Frick
View of interim storage site, Image by Elias Knecht
The process comprised three phases.
In the first phase, students studied demolished buildings that supplied reusable materials, learning how to harness their specific characteristics to open new architectural possibilities. This included researching the history and industrial background of the source building and constructing, at full scale, one selected building element, such as a waterproof roof, an opening, exterior cladding, or a staircase, using waste materials. This exercise also helped students understand the construction mechanics of the original building.
In the second phase, students designed a small-scale architectural project intended to create a special place within the everyday environment of the Alumni Lounge. Through site observation, they identified spatial qualities capable of transforming an ambiguous square into an extraordinary space. This phase required understanding the concepts underlying the traditional Japanese tearoom, as well as mediating between conflicting demands, for example, being enclosed yet safe, hidden yet easily discoverable. Importantly, the second-phase design was not to rely on the construction methods or techniques developed in the first phase, allowing students to focus solely on spatial design.
In the third phase, students constructed the designed teahouse (or part of it) at full scale. They selected appropriate materials and construction methods, designed details for processing waste materials, and developed technical solutions to realize their envisioned space. The first and second phases were carried out individually, while the third phase was executed as group work, following the selection of proposals in collaboration with the business owner.
Phase 2 - design a “tea room”
Phase 3 - construction of tea room
Invited teachers
Kozo KADOWAKI
Kozo Kadowaki, Ph.D. is an architectural theorist, practitioner and architect specializing in building systems design and building construction. He currently teaches as an Associate Professor at Meiji University, and practices architecture with his firm associates, which recently completed “Kadowaki House” (2018). His recent publications in English include “Sharing Tokyo: Artifice and the Social World” (Actar Publisher, 2023) and “Meanwhile in Japan by Itsuko Hasegawa, Kozo Kadowaki” (Canadian Center for Architecture, 2021). He curated the Japan Pavilion exhibition at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, focusing on the shareability of buildings.
Ryoko IWASE
Born in 1984, Principal of Studio Iwase and Assistant professor at Kyoto University, where she also graduated from the Faculty of Engineering and completed her master’s program. After working for EM2N Architects in Switzerland and at Kengo Kuma and Associates, she established her own office after winning the 2013 Kizu River Waterfront Competition held by Osaka Prefecture; her prizewinning waterfront renovation, Tocotocodandan, was completed in 2017. Her practice covers multiple areas from architectural spaces to public-works infrastructure and public space design. In 2021, she exhibited her work at Venice Biennale as one of the main exhibits of the Japan Pavilion. She has received the grand prize of The Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture Award, the Good Design Gold Award, the Tokyo University of the Arts Emerald Award, and the Best Debutant Award,AIJ Young Architect Award for Selected Architectural Designs 2022.
Takahiro KAI
Born in Miyazaki in 1993. He got a Bachelor of Art from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2017. While creating works using wood as the primary material, he established studio arche in 2016, a studio that comprehensively manages the entire process from design to production to construction. He designs and produces works across different fields and scales, as diverse as cutlery, furniture, fixtures, installations, and architecture.