Urban wild ecology

In this public Treseder lecture, renowned Japanese architects Mio Tsuneyama and Fuminori Nousaku discuss the capitalist system of mass production and consumption that has led to environmental degradation, including ecosystem collapse and global warming. In response, they introduce the architectural theory of Urban Wild Ecology and its accompanying design methodologies rooted in practice.

They view architecture not as a mere physical structure, but as a temporary and dynamic “node” in a complex web of resources, knowledge, technology, and institutions. From this perspective, they are developing a variety of ecological architectural practices, including a bricolage approach that utilises the resources around us, construction methods rooted in traditional Japanese knowledge, and independent foundations that aim to promote a healthy subterranean environment within the urban context.

These efforts present the possibility of architecture that intervenes in the environment with weak interaction, countering the dominant extractive tendencies of the building industry. They support coexistence with multiple species and enable biological and technological cycles—from production to decomposition—thereby offering a new vision for architecture and urban design. The lecture will explore both the theoretical and practical aspects of this approach.

About the speakers

Mio Tsuneyama is an architect and educator whose work bridges European and Japanese contexts. After working at Bonhôte Zapata Architectes in Switzerland, she received the Swiss Federal Government Scholarship and graduated from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2008. She continued her career at HHF Architects until 2012 and founded Studio mnm upon returning to Japan. Tsuneyama has held teaching positions at Tokyo University of Science, EPFL, and Columbia University, contributing to architectural discourse across cultures.

Fuminori Nousaku studied architecture at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), earning his doctorate in 2012. After working with Njiric+ Arhitekti in Croatia, he established Fuminori Nousaku Architects in 2010. He has held academic roles at Tokyo Tech, Tokyo Denki University, and Tokyo Metropolitan University, and taught internationally at the Technical University of Munich and Columbia University. He is currently Associate Professor at the Institute of Science Tokyo.

In 2024, Tsuneyama and Nousaku co-founded HOLES, a platform dedicated to ecological renovation and architectural theory. Their practice integrates lived experimentation with academic research, proposing architecture that engages the land as a living system—an urgent rethinking of design in the climate crisis era.