Kae Ito Builds a Collapsible 'Secret Garden' for Art Week Tokyo's Bar

Architect Kae Ito has designed the space for this year's AWT Bar at Art Week Tokyo, and it is built to fold up. The installation, called Kuru Kuru, is meant to evoke a "secret garden," according to The Art Newspaper.

Art Week Tokyo is a citywide programme of art events in the Japanese capital, held this year from November 4 to 8, 2026. The organisers say 56 venues are taking part, a record for the event. It is run in collaboration with Art Basel, the Swiss fair organiser known for its art fairs in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong.

The bar itself is a pop-up that first opened in 2022. This year it sits in the emergence aoyama complex in Minami-Aoyama, a district of Tokyo known for its fashion shops and galleries. It is open from 10am to 10:30pm every day of the event.

Ito's structure is made from modular pieces, rings and semi-circles that lock together with a simple mechanism and can be collapsed again. Openwork frames of stainless steel and acrylic, a see-through plastic, are spread through the room. A geometric pattern on the floor shows where each piece goes.

The colour-coded acrylic hemispheres do double duty. Their flat tops work as seats, tables or counters, so the same shapes that make up the garden also make up the furniture. Multimedia elements by the artist Nile Koetting are also included in the space.

Ito opened her own firm, Office Itokae, in 2025. Before that she spent ten years at Sanaa, the Tokyo practice run by Kazuyo Sejima, which designed the glass-walled Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Food is handled by chef Ryuichi Yokomizo, who is serving two small canapés: a gateau of duck rillettes with pain d'epices, a spiced gingerbread, and a sable inspired by tarte tatin, the upside-down apple tart. Yokomizo spent nine years at the Michelin-starred Joel Robuchon restaurant in Tokyo's Ebisu district before opening La & Le in Aoyama.

The drinks menu includes cocktails designed by three artists: Natsumi Aoyagi, Mariko Mori and Yoshihiro Suda. Mori is one of Japan's best-known artists abroad, with works shown at major museums in Europe and the United States.

For visitors, the appeal is simple. The room is a place to sit, eat and drink between gallery visits, and it is designed to be taken apart when the week ends.