Travelling Studio Japan-Landscape

Studio Japan will examine the unique island landscape between land and sea to interrogate the role of architecture and landscape in community revitalization, ecological regeneration, and creative place-making. Students will examine the Japanese countryside as a source of inspiration and potential while responding to pressing contemporary social and ecological challenges. Japan, as one of the first countries to transition into a post-growth society, needs alternative design approaches that acknowledge and work within the limits of growth. We are interested in human-scale design that draws on local and available resources, knowledge and materials with possible areas for further investigation including adaptive design, reuse and repair, circular ecologies and economies, community-led architecture, non-human/multi-species design, materiality and indigenous knowledge systems, and other creative, engaged and critical ways to confront our current ecological and social conditions.