Isamu Noguchi and Geoffrey Bawa Exhibition at BUNDLE GALLERY in Noda, Chiba, November 13–23

BUNDLE GALLERY in Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, will hold the exhibition "Isamu Noguchi and Geoffrey Bawa: Light and Form Across Borders" (イサム・ノグチとジェフリー・バワ 越境するあかりとかたち) from Friday, November 13 to Monday, November 23, 2026 (a national holiday). Organized by BUNDLESTUDIO, the exhibition brings furniture and lighting by Noguchi and Bawa into a house designed in 1974.

A Sculptor and an Architect

Isamu Noguchi

Isamu Noguchi and Geoffrey Bawa worked in different fields, yet neither stayed within existing frameworks, and both spent their lives questioning their own expression.

Noguchi was born to a Japanese poet father and an American writer mother and grew up between the two countries. Bawa studied in the United Kingdom, then returned to his home country of Sri Lanka, where he built a distinctive architecture rooted in the tropical climate.

Geoffrey Bawa. ©Dominic Sansoni, courtesy the Geoffrey Bawa Trust

Both drew on the multiple cultures within themselves as a source of creativity, without reducing them to one or the other. Noguchi started from sculpture and expanded his work into lighting, furniture, gardens, and public spaces. Through architecture, Bawa continued to question the boundaries between nature and human creation, inside and outside, and tradition and the contemporary.

Their fields and the places where they grew up differ, but the organizers see a shared will running through both of their careers: the wish to go beyond existing frameworks and turn different cultures and values into their own creations.

Light That Illuminates, Form That Receives

Light illuminates form and changes the look of a space. Form, in turn, receives light and changes how it appears.

Akari (Isamu Noguchi)

Noguchi's AKARI is a soft artificial light that glows through washi paper. The light itself becomes a sculpture and creates a presence in the room. In Bawa's architecture, by contrast, light is the natural light and shadow made by courtyards, corridors, and deep eaves. Light that softens strong sunshine, lets the wind through, and shifts with time ties together the architecture, the garden, and people's daily lives.

Light (akari) and form are not merely design elements. They are also points where space and people meet. The exhibition looks at the work of the two figures from the viewpoints of akari and form, and explores the creative possibilities that extend beyond the boundaries between sculpture and architecture, art and daily life, and nature and human behavior.

The Venue: A House Designed in 1974

BUNDLE GALLERY exterior

The venue is a house designed in 1974 by the architect 進来廉, who studied under Le Corbusier, Jean Prouvé, and Charlotte Perriand. Light streams in through glass set between the walls and the roof, and the roof sometimes appears to float. The interior floor is paved with the same genshoseki stone (玄昌石) as the terrace, so the inside and outside connect continuously.

BUNDLE GALLERY interior

In this space, where the architect's distinctive sense of form lives on, furniture and lighting designed by Noguchi and Bawa are placed. Visitors can look at the two figures' expression and the questions it raises not only through the relationship between works, but also through their relationship with the architecture.

Furniture and Lighting on Display

Noguchi's furniture and lighting, including AKARI, have been produced by Vitra and Herman Miller and have been loved around the world for many years. Bawa's furniture and lighting began to be produced for the first time in 2025 by Phantom Hands (ファントム・ハンズ).

No.11 Sofa (Geoffrey Bawa)

These designs, which reached the present day after different spans of time, meet in a Japanese residential space of the 1970s.

The exhibition was planned because, at a time when many cultures and ideas intersect and influence one another, and when advances in technology including AI are further widening creative possibilities, the organizers wish to once again engage not only with completed forms of the past but also with the will of people who kept questioning their own expression in the midst of change.

Things that go unnoticed when each work is viewed alone become visible through the relationships between works and with the architecture. What do the wills of the two figures, resonating across time, bring to us? What possibilities do they open for our creativity? Visitors are invited to find out at the venue.

Books about Isamu Noguchi and Geoffrey Bawa will also be on sale during the exhibition.

Exhibition Details

Isamu Noguchi and Geoffrey Bawa: Light and Form Across Borders (イサム・ノグチとジェフリー・バワ 越境するあかりとかたち)

• Dates: Friday, November 13 – Monday, November 23, 2026 (a national holiday)
• Hours: 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM (open daily during the exhibition period)
• Venue: BUNDLE GALLERY
• Address: 57 Noda, Noda City, Chiba Prefecture
• Access:
  • By train: 5-minute walk from Noda-shi Station (Tobu Railway)
  • By car: 40 minutes from Nagareyama IC on the Joban Expressway
• Admission: ¥1,100 (advance reservation required)
• Reservations: https://thewill2026.peatix.com
• Organizer: BUNDLESTUDIO
• Special cooperation: アートモダンジャパン, 五割一分, Phantom Hands (ファントム・ハンズ)
• Cooperation: album., Vitra, Gallery STILL LIFE, Herman Miller Japan (ハーマンミラージャパン), BUILDING, LIEB BOOKS
• Official website: https://bundlestudio.jp/
• Instagram: @bundlestudio_japan