The Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio (TAM) of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) is hosting, from 11 April to 5 October 2025, the exhibition Make Do with Now. New Directions in Japanese Architecture, an exploration of the emerging practices of a generation of Japanese architects and urbanists formed in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Curated by Yuma Shinohara and produced by the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, the exhibition documents a new approach to design that rejects speculative logic to take root in critical, ecological and social action.

Far removed from the traditional image of the archistar and in stark contrast to the ‘minimalist’ forms of Japanese architecture to which we have become accustomed, these designers transform precariousness into opportunity, working with regenerated materials and pre-existing contexts to respond to the country’s structural problems: demographic decline, abandonment of the countryside, the housing crisis and economic stagnation. Their interventions, often small-scale and off the beaten track, question the role of the architect and the very meaning of contemporary design in an era marked by the end of unlimited growth.

Sixty years after the publication of Modern architecture in Japan (Mack Books, 2022) by Manfredo Tafuri, which analysed the process of progressive westernisation of Japanese architecture, the exhibition proposes a reflection on the autonomy of Japanese architectural language in the last five years. In opposition to the large speculative interventions, the most innovative architectural scene is now developing in independent studios, capable of redefining the idea of construction through collaborative and experimental practices.

The exhibition is divided into two main sections. The first presents twenty recent projects that illustrate the heterogeneity of approaches and methodologies, without being reduced to a single unifying narrative. The studios on show include: GROUP, Masaaki Iwamoto / ICADA, Ishimura + Neichi, Norihisa Kawashima / Nori Architects, Chie Konno / t e c o, Lunch! Architects, Murayama + Kato Architecture / mtka, Fuminori Nousaku Architects, Jumpei Nousaku Architects, Shun Takagi / Root A, Rui Itasaka / RUI Architects, Studio GROSS, SSK, Keigo Kawai / TAB, Tsubame Architects, Shigenori Uoya, VUILD, Suzuko Yamada, Maki Yoshimura / MYAO.

The second section explores the work of five of the most representative studios on the contemporary Japanese scene: Mio Tsuneyama and Fuminori Nousaku, 403architecture [dajiba], CHAr, tomito architecture and dot architects. Through a multimedia installation, including photographs, large-scale models and video portraits by Studio GROSS (Anne Gross and Sebastian Gross), the exhibition offers an immersive perspective on the design processes and alternative visions proposed by these architects.

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue published by Christoph Merian Verlag, with critical essays by Yuma Shinohara, Momoyo Kaijima, Kōji Ichikawa, Noriko Matsuda with Norihito Nakatani and Akihito Aoi, Shin Aiba, Leo Tanishige, Siena Hirao, Jun Yamaguchi and Cathelijne Nuijsink, enriched by photographs by Go Itami.

Make Do with Now. New Directions in Japanese Architecture is not only a survey of contemporary Japanese architecture, but a reflection on the very condition of the discipline today: in a world confronted with climate crisis and economic uncertainty, the lesson that emerges from these projects is that adapting does not mean succumbing, but reinventing the way we live and build.