Yuri Suzuki at Camden Arts Projects review

Installation in a former church made out of white pipes and colourful funnels — (Image credit: Courtesy of the artist Yuri Suzuki and Camden Arts Projects, © Yuri Suzuki. All Rights Reserved, Photo: Deniz)

In the soaring space of Camden Arts Projects, Yuri Suzuki invites each visitor to help shape his latest work – a sonic architecture built in real time. Armed with white plastic pipes, brightly coloured funnel-shaped horns, and a set of simple tools, visitors help to build and reconfigure the pavilion structure rising within the Grade II-listed former Methodist church’s double-height space. The elements they add shape custom pathways for sound to travel and echo, resulting in what Suzuki calls 'an acoustic device… a sonic piece of architecture… a utopian city of shared experience and mutual connection'.

Alongside the sound of visitors, a generative soundtrack plays softly through hidden speakers in pipes. Made from a library of vowels and consonants that are common across global languages, the sounds are composed in a way that sometimes resembles spoken language. ‘It may feel familiar, like you’re hearing a language you know, though it’s from nowhere in particular,’ explains Suzuki.

The name Utooto draws on a sacred Okinawan phrase used in prayer. It’s intended to evoke reverence and play while inviting reflection.

Conceptually, the Tokyo-born Margate-based sound designer was inspired by utopian architectural visions, particularly Walt Disney’s original plan for EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). 'EPCOT was imagined not as a theme park, but as a real, functioning city where innovation and collaboration could shape a better future,' he explains. 'In a similar spirit, Utooto invites visitors to construct their own prototypes of a utopia – not from concrete or steel, but from sound, structure, and collective imagination.'

In a time of growing social division, Suzuki hopes the work can amplify interaction, communication, and collective play – using sound as a universal language.

Utooto runs at Camden Arts Projects, London, until 5 October 2025, 9am-6pm, Wednesday to Sunday

yurisuzuki.com
camdenartsprojects.com

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Ali Morris is a UK-based editor, writer and creative consultant specialising in design, interiors and architecture. In her 16 years as a design writer, Ali has travelled the world, crafting articles about creative projects, products, places and people for titles such as Dezeen, Wallpaper* and Kinfolk.