Mobile Engawa
Artist
Chaal.Chaal.Agency
Mobile Engawa is a participatory urban intervention designed to activate spatial imagination and civic dialogue in the everyday landscape of Chiba. Conceived as a movable public platform, it consists of a modular structure and a series of transformable cubes that function as both expressive devices and participatory tools. Installed in overlooked or transitional spaces around Chiba Station, the project invites citizens to articulate their visions, frustrations, and desires for the city by inscribing, assembling, or altering these cubes—transforming them into micro-architectures of collective thought. Drawing on the Japanese concept of engawa—a threshold space between interior and exterior—the installation fosters informal encounters, civic play, and shared authorship. Developed in six phases, from research and design to post-installation reactivation, Mobile Engawa reframes public space as a site of co-creation. It bridges art and urbanism, not as spectacle, but as a method to re-sensitize citizens to the lived textures, frictions, and futures embedded in their built environment.
Schedule
・May 9–17, 2025: Artwork creation, workshops, and research on exhibition venues
・May 18–30, 2025: Carriage and budget decisions
・June 1–July 31, 2025: Redesign and drawing of the “mobile Engawa”
・August 1–30, 2025:Creation of the “mobile Engawa” Production of the “Mobile Engawa
・September 15–24, 2025: Implementation of interactive programs (workshops) aimed at engaging with the public during the intensive exhibition period.
・ October 19–24, 2025: Implementation of interactive programs (workshops) aimed at engaging with the public during the intensive exhibition period.
・Project Director Takashi Iwasawa
・Project Manager Joy Yonebayashi, Hideyo Ryoken
・Project Coordinator Stuart Munro