In this video interview, we begin inside Dot Architects’ studio in Kitakagaya—a former shipbuilding quarter now facing depopulation—where Wataru Doi explains how they conceived Chidori Bunka, a once-vacant timber complex. Lacking original plans, the team meticulously surveyed every beam, column and wall to uncover amateur repairs by residents and shipyard workers. Embracing this accidental bricolage, they preserved patched timbers, mismatched joints and reclaimed cladding as living traces of community craft. A new glazed façade and double-height atrium reconnect the complex to the street, while adaptable exhibition areas, dining spaces, offices and a bar once run by the firm ensure its continual activation. Located just meters from their studio, Dot Architects continue to program and care for Chidori Bunka—witnessing its evolution and reinforcing its role as a vibrant community hub every day 1.
Featured in Make Do With Now: New Directions in Japanese Architecture—curated by Yuma Shinohara at Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio (April 11–October 5, 2025)2—Chidori Bunka exemplifies a generation of architects responding to resource scarcity, demographic shifts and climate urgency through creative reuse and social engagement. Here, preservation is not static conservation but an ongoing collaboration: architecture as a living framework that adapts, evolves and serves its community.
1. Make Do With Now: New Directions in Japanese Architecture, Christian Merian Verlag, November 2022.
2. Make Do With Now exhibition website, Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio (USI)
AloJapan.com