Tokyo — WHAT MUSEUM, the museum of contemporary art and architecture operated by Warehouse TERRADA, is currently hosting the exhibition, “Corrugated / Coral – Eight Practices to Project Architecture Afar” from Tuesday, April 21 to Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026.
Photo by Keizo KIOKU
WHAT MUSEUM’s ARCHI-DEPOT has stored and showcased architectural models entrusted by architects and architectural firms, and has promoted architectural culture through these works. This exhibition focuses on “models” as a medium for expressing architects’ ideas and philosophies, showcasing models created specifically for this exhibition by eight groups of architects active in Japan and abroad. Visitors are invited to discover each architect’s unique ideas, which cannot be fully captured by words or drawings alone, through spatial and physical experiences.
Models as Tools for Understanding Architects’ Thinking
Architectural models are widely recognized as three-dimensional representations of buildings. At the same time, they are an essential means of expression for architects to give form to their perspectives and thoughts on space, structure and society.
The models introduced in this exhibition are not intended to show the completed form of a building. They are three-dimensional representations of the architects’ very thinking — how they perceive and approach the world. Through these models, visitors can physically and spatially experience the architect’s thinking that drawings and words alone cannot fully convey.
New Models Created Specifically for This Exhibition by Eight Groups of Cutting-edge Architects
The participating architects are the following eight groups: ALTEMY, Office Yuasa, Garage, GROUP, DOMINO ARCHITECTS, Tetsuo Hatakeyama + Taiki Yoshino + Archipelago Architects Studio, Toshiki Hirano and RUI Architects. Each has been practicing architecture while confronting the question “What is architecture?” amid today’s rapidly changing society, and they have created new models specifically for this exhibition. The venue features a model with a perimeter of approximately 12 meters, installations that allow visitors to step inside and experience the space and objects that they can hold in their hands.
Changing Society and Architectural Thinking
The foundations of society are shifting dramatically amid advancing information technology, disasters, pandemics, climate change, and other factors. In architecture, while immediate responses to pressing challenges remain essential, the importance of envisioning solutions from a long-term perspective, transcending time and place, needs to be reexamined.
The exhibition title “Corrugated / Coral” refers to two entities of differing natures: corrugated sheets, a familiar, man-made building material and coral reefs, a natural structure formed over vast spans of time. It represents a state where their respective timescales, dimensions and rates of formation intersect and coexist. This exhibition introduces architects’ attempts to reexamine architecture from a broad perspective, using familiar materials and structures as their starting points, all presented through their models. Via this medium, visitors encounter their thinking and imagination, experiencing firsthand how architects engage with society and the environment.
Overview of the Exhibition
Title: Corrugated / Coral – Eight Practices to Project Architecture Afar
Dates: Tuesday, April 21-Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026
Venue: WHAT MUSEUM (Warehouse TERRADA G Building, 2-6-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0002, Japan)
Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. (admission until 5:00 p.m.)
Closed on: Mondays (but open when Monday is a public holiday, then closed the following Tuesday)
Admission: Adults 1,500 yen; University or vocational college students 800 yen; Students under high school age Free (A 200-yen discount applies to online-purchased tickets for a designated date and time, though this cannot be combined with other discounts.)
Organizing: WHAT MUSEUM
Planning: WHAT MUSEUM ARCHI-DEPOT and SUNAKI
Endorsement: Shinagawa City, Shinagawa City Board of Education
Official website: https://what.warehouseofart.org/exhibitions/corrugatedcoral/en
During the exhibition period, talk events featuring the exhibiting architects and related displays at ARCHI-DEPOT are scheduled. Details will be announced in due course.
About Exhibitors and Exhibiting Works
ALTEMY “Inter-Embodiment”
ALTEMY + risa kagami “Inter-Embodiment” / Photo by Yo Tomura
Urban crowds and observers intertwine, establishing a reciprocal relationship where each becomes the architecture of the other.
This work presents architecture as the very situation in which one discovers a “distinct body” within homogenized humans, and “I” and the other perpetually become each other’s environment.
Profile: An architecture design studio and a first-class registered architect’s office, represented by Eri Tsugawa. They design across various fields, including architecture, landscape, installation, mobility, and fashion, treating all as “architecture.”
Office Yuasa “Darkness, Afterglow”
Office Yuasa “Darkness, Afterglow” / Photo by Keizo KIOKU
A wall and five reading desks with chairs, all coated with phosphorescent paint, reveal traces of visitors’ lighting and reading as a phosphorescent glow after the lights are turned off. Outlines of absence superimposed in the darkness weave patterns of faint light, emerging with a delay as transparent relationships within instantly consumed moments of daily life.
Profile: Ryosuke Yuasa/Born in Tokyo in 1982. Completed his Master’s Program at Tokyo University of the Arts. After working at Hiroshi Naito Architect & Associates, he established Office Yuasa in 2019. Associate Professor at Tama Art University since 2024.
Garage “Disentangled boundaries”
Garage “Disentangled boundaries” / Photo by Keizo KIOKU
This work focuses on the collective and physical nature of architecture and deploys an improvised, temporary structure. They are “disentangled boundaries” that open and close, connecting different domains. This is a full-scale study model, yet it also functions as a dramatic space imbued with festivity.
Profile: An architectural collective composed of members specializing in architecture, film, and theater. They view architecture as “a phase in an ever-changing phenomenon,” and practice design activities that encompass not only space but also time including various means such as film, theater, festivals, and fieldwork.
GROUP “City Asleep”
GROUP “City Asleep” / Videography Yoshihiro Inada / Photo by Keizo KIOKU
In Shibuya, Tokyo, drowsiness comes over me.
In the haze of half-sleep, the smells and sounds of Shibuya blend, and my body sways faintly with my breath.
People move between the buildings like waves.
In the spaces between, I find a place to sleep, put away my phone, and close my eyes.
Profile: Through architectural projects, GROUP aim to create spaces where people with diverse expertise can collaborate both temporarily and continuously, engaging in architectural design, research, and construction.
DOMINO ARCHITECTS “PULP FICTION (jetway)”
DOMINO ARCHITECTS “PULP FICTION (jetway)” / Photo by Keizo KIOKU
A model for preserving and observing a thought experiment. There are several spaces I’ve long imagined. A looping aerial walkway formed by linking together the movable jetways found at airports. One could walk forever along that functional, symbolic, fleeting slope between passing through the boarding gate and stepping onto the aircraft. Though without any entrances or exits, you would never actually board a plane.
Profile: DOMINO ARCHITECTS explores connections with history and context through both design practice and theory, reframing the relationships between information and material, digital and analogue, high-tech and low-tech. Shaped through collaborations with diverse teams, its work spans architecture, interiors, product design, research, writing, and education.
Tetsuo Hatakeyama + Taiki Yoshino + Archipelago Architects Studio “What is Circle, Triangle, Square?”
Tetsuo Hatakeyama + Taiki Yoshino + Archipelago Architects Studio “What is Circle, Triangle, Square?” / Photo by Keizo KIOKU
Do we truly know the circle, the triangle, and the square? If it were possible to see them as they are, what would be there—and what would not be there?
Profile: Tetsuo Hatakeyama/Born in Toyama Prefecture in 1986. After working with Shingo Masuda + Katsuhiro Otsubo, he established Archipelago Architects Studio in 2017. Taiki Yoshino/Born in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1988. After working at Go Hasegawa and Associates, he joined Archipelago Architects Studio in 2020.
Toshiki Hirano “A Hakoniwa Plan for Tokyo”
Toshiki Hirano ” A Hakoniwa Plan for Tokyo” / Photo by Keizo KIOKU
This work explores a methodology for projecting the individual unconscious and obsessions, materialized through Hakoniwa therapy techniques and generative AI, onto an urban-scale project set within Tokyo Bay.
Profile: Architectural designer and researcher. Born in 1985, Hirano earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo. His research and practice are situated at the crossroads of architecture, art, technology, crafts, and philosophy, exploring the vast, uncharted ‘hole’ that exists within this intersection.
RUI Architects “Prop”
RUI Architects “Prop” / Photo by Keizo KIOKU
After walking through the city and making models of places that caught my eye, things that had somehow made peace with each other in this world full of contradictions began to speak. This is an attempt to capture the humor and helplessness that exists there.
Profile: Founded in 2018 by Rui Itasaka. The studio focuses on architectural design while actively engaging in other fields, encompassing product and material development, artistic creation and more. Received the Under 35 Architects Exhibition 2021 Gold Medal.
Note: Exhibitors are listed in Japanese alphabetical order.
Audio Guides
By downloading the official WHAT MUSEUM app, visitors can use the audio guide when visiting the museum for free.
The Japanese and English audio-guide navigator for this exhibition is Saya Ichikawa, a model. She offers accessible explanations of the exhibiting works on display and highlights of the exhibition to help visitors better appreciate the exhibition.
Saya Ichikawa Profile
Grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Scouted at age 16 and debuted as an exclusive model for magazines.
She has since appeared in numerous fashion magazines. Her diverse interests include music, reading, watching anime, railways, art, sumo and food-hopping.
About WHAT MUSEUM
WHAT MUSEUM, operated by Warehouse TERRADA, is a unique museum that only a warehouse company could create — transforming warehouse space into a place for encountering contemporary art and architecture. The name of WHAT (WAREHOUSE OF ART TERRADA) implies the cultural value which is gleaming quietly in the warehouse, and the museum exhibits two- and three-dimensional works as well as architectural models, photographs, films, literature and installations. By showcasing artworks entrusted to Warehouse TERRADA by collectors and artists, the museum bridges artwork storage, exhibition and engagement. Moreover, as a hub of the international art district, Tennoz, Tokyo, it serves as a nucleus for the local art community, bringing art and culture from the warehouse space to the world.
https://what.warehouseofart.org/en
About ARCHI-DEPOT
Photo by Katsuhiro Aoki
WHAT MUSEUM’s ARCHI-DEPOT, holding over 800 architectural models from architects and architecture firms, showcases a selection on public display. To promote the fascination of architecture through architectural models, WHAT MUSEUM has hosted numerous exhibitions, including “GAUDI QUEST” (2019), “The Words for Architecture” (2020), and “SENSE OF STRUCTURE” (2023–2024). It also hosts special exhibitions, workshops and events featuring architectural models.
About Warehouse TERRADA
Established in 1950 and located in Tennoz, Tokyo, Warehouse TERRADA has developed dedicated storage services for highly specialized items such as artworks, wine, media and confidential documents. In particular, the art storage service, first launched in 1975, has expanded into artwork restoration, transportation, exhibitions and other related solutions, all available in one-stop. In 2014, the company began operating a bonded warehouse for artworks. In 2022, it launched a new space that functions as a permanent gallery venue allowing for viewings, storage and more under bonded conditions, aiming to further invigorate art distribution. Warehouse TERRADA also operates art studios available for rent and hosts the TERRADA ART AWARD, supporting emerging artists. These initiatives earned the company the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award in 2018. In recent years, Warehouse TERRADA has opened several facilities that promote art and culture, including the museum of contemporary art and architecture WHAT MUSEUM, art gallery cafe WHAT CAFE, art materials lab PIGMENT TOKYO and TERRADA ART COMPLEX, one of Japan’s largest gallery complexes. Through these broad-ranging art industry operations, and as a leading company in the Japanese art world, we provide services that contribute to revitalizing the art market and developing Tennoz into the world’s most exciting art capital.
Company name: Warehouse TERRADA
Representative: President & CEO, Kohei Terada
Address: 2-6-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Foundation: October 1950
URL: https://www.terrada.co.jp/en
Inquiries for the exhibition and WHAT MUSEUM
WHAT MUSEUM E-MAIL: info.what@terrada.co.jp