CUP is pleased to present an evening about urban vernacular architecture from New York to Tokyo. The event will feature a lecture by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, principal and founder of Japanese architecture firm Atelier Bow-Wow, and a slide presentation by documentary photographer Martha Cooper.

In the late 1970’s, Martha Cooper began to shoot graffiti and break dancing, subjects which led to her extensive coverage of early Hip Hop as it emerged from the Bronx. Her first book, Subway Art, is considered “the Bible” of graffiti art. Her current project, Manhattan Vernacular, illustrates New Yorkers’ enterprising use of space and their expression of identity through the appropriation of the forms, symbols, and materials of architecture.

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto founded Tokyo-based architecture firm Atelier Bow-Wow with Momoyo Kaijima in 1992. Atelier Bow-Wow’s work comes out of the idiosyncrasies of Tokyo’s urban landscape, in which space is often limited and available lots are tiny and irregularly shaped. The firm investigates what they call ‘pet-architecture’ and ‘no-good architecture’; small constructions wedged between pre-existing buildings or hybrids that create multiple uses in a single space. Tsukamoto is an Associate Professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and currently a Design Critic at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. He is an author of several books including, Bow-Wow From Post Bubble City, Contemporary House Studies, Pet Architecture Guide Book, and Made in Tokyo.

Tuesday, April 24, 7:00pm
Maysles Institute
343 Malcolm X Blvd (between 127th and 128th Street)
New York, NY
2/3 to 125th Street

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.