Loose Fit Panel Talk: A Dialogue on Contemporary Japanese Architecture
What is architecture for when growth slows, populations shrink, and disaster reshapes daily life? After decades of rapid economic growth and urbanisation, Japan has seen three decades of slowing population and economic activity. Then, in 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, exposing the limits of the old model of building. Since then, many Japanese architects have been rethinking what architecture is for, who it serves, and how it is made.
The exhibition Loose Fit: Provisional and Participatory Practices in East Asia captures this shift, showcasing practitioners across the East Asian region, including Japan, who are adopting a “loose fit” approach: making do, slowing down, and taking care.
Join us for an online dialogue with Yuma Shinohara, curator at the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, whose exhibitions include Make Do With Now: New Directions in Japanese Architecture (2022); Samuel Michaëlsson, author of Communal Ecologies: Conversations with Young Japanese Architects (Arvinius+Orfeus, 2025); and architects Mio Tsuneyama (Studio mnm and HOLES) and Yosuke Tsuga (TGA Architects & Partners). The conversation will be moderated by Dr Nancy Ji, curator of the exhibition and lecturer at the University of Melbourne.
After short presentations, the panel opens into a discussion on resourcefulness, community, and a new generation of practice in post-growth Japan. Come and be part of the conversation.
Tuesday 17 November
5pm Tokyo (JST) / 9am Sweden and Basel (CET) / 7pm Melbourne (AEDT)
Online via Zoom
Please register and the zoom link will be sent to you.
Speaker bios
Nancy Yao Ji is an architect, educator, and curator based in Naarm/Melbourne, and Lecturer in Architectural Design at the University of Melbourne. Her curatorial work includes Loose Fit: Provisional and Participatory Practices in East Asia (Design Gallery, University of Melbourne, with Dijia Chen and Alex Seo, 2026) and KOYA: Shed Architecture (Walsh Street House, Robin Boyd Foundation, with Mio Tsuneyama and Fuminori Nousaku, 2025). She holds a doctorate from Keio University and was educated at the University of Auckland, the University of Melbourne, UC Berkeley, and TU Delft.
Yuma Shinohara is a curator at the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum. His exhibitions there include What Was Could Be: Experiments between Preservation and Architecture (2025), SAY Swiss Architecture Yearbook (2023), and Make Do With Now: New Directions in Japanese Architecture (2022). He previously held editorial and curatorial positions at Storefront for Art and Architecture, Ruby Press, the Academy of Arts Berlin, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. He has contributed to ARCH+, Lotus International, and Kenchiku Zasshi, and has lectured and served as visiting critic at institutions including EPFL and ETH Zurich. He graduated in comparative literature and society from Columbia University.
Photo: Yuma Shinohara, © Max Creasy.
Samuel Michaëlsson works at the intersection of architecture, art, and public space, with a particular interest in representation across digital and physical media. His practice moves between digital and analogue processes, and between the practical and theoretical dimensions of artistic production. Since co-founding the magazine PAPER in 2011, he has written for publications including Swedish Review of Architecture and NORA: Nordic Review of Architecture. With Yosuke Tsuga and Anna Kawai, he leads the research project Hiroba – Learning from Japanese Public Space, and he is the author of Communal Ecologies: Conversations with Young Japanese Architects (Arvinius+Orfeus, 2025).
Yosuke Tsuga is a Tokyo-based architect and founder of TGA Architects & Partners. His practice spans architecture, urban and interior design, alongside exhibition curation, research, and collaborations with artists. Working between Japan and Scandinavia, he has partnered with the Swedish Embassy on projects fostering cultural exchange between Sweden and Japan. Since 2019, he has co-led Hiroba – Learning from Japanese Public Space, a research project examining how shared spaces are designed and used in both countries. He has also been a guest critic at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Mio Tsuneyama is an architect and educator based in Tokyo. She is the founder of Studio mnm and co-founder, with Fuminori Nousaku, of HOLES, a platform for ecological renovation and architectural theory. Her work includes Holes in the House and Fudomae House, and she co-authored Urban Wild Ecology (TOTO Publishing, 2024) with Nousaku. She was the 2025 Robert Garland Treseder Fellow at the University of Melbourne and has taught at Tokyo University of Science, EPFL, and Columbia University. She previously worked at Bonhôte Zapata Architectes and HHF Architects.