PRODUCT TO PLANET by Leon Rost, AIA (BIG)
2021-09-16 19:00 - 21:00 UTC
PRODUCT TO PLANET
by Leon Rost, AIA (BIG)
Thursday, September 16, 2021 @19:00 JST (18:30 to 19:00: TEST SESSION)
SUMMARY:
From hand-held product to a city-building scale, Leon demonstrates how wood can be an integral aspect of a concept design, and carry through into execution. Google projects in California and London deploy mass timber as structural complement to steel and concrete systems, and as a carbon-sequestering complement to green and PV roofs. Zooming out to a global perspective, we explore how mass timber fits in to a sustainable master plan for our planet, and investigate the potential of robotic manufacturing on mass timber construction.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Ar. Leon Rost, AIA (BIG / Partner)
Leon Rost began his collaboration with Bjarke Ingels in 2005 at PLOT in Copenhagen. After completing architectural studies at California Polytechnic University, Leon worked with renowned offices in Japan, Scandinavia, and Portugal on a variety of cultural, residential and master planning projects. Leon joined BIG with the launch of the New York office in 2011, and in 2018 he became a Partner, leading a range of projects with a focus on sustainability, technology, and the public realm. Currently, Leon is leading the design of the competition-winning Johns Hopkins University Student Center, the Oakland A’s ballpark masterplan, Google’s visionary campus and headquarter buildings with over 3 million SF currently under construction, as well as Woven City, Toyota’s prototype city of the future.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, participants will be able to:

An understanding of how mass timber was used as a complimentary system to an overall building structural system and sustainability narrative.
An example of CLT slabs used as trays for leave-in formwork and balustrade in the Google Charleston East project.
An example of timber mullions used at unprecedented scale in the Google London project.
The potential of robotic mass timber construction using manufacturing technology.

CES:
2.0 LU/HSW for AIA Members

NATURE IN AND AROUND BUILDING by JUNKO ANAZAWA (ATELIER Fuuchi)
2021-09-30 19:00 - 21:00 UTC
NATURE IN AND AROUND BUILDING
by JUNKO ANAZAWA (ATELIER Fuuchi)
Thursday, September 30, 2021 @19:00 JST (18:30 to 19:00: TEST SESSION)
SUMMARY:
In a country with diverse topography and rich plant community, Japanese have developed human-nature intimacy and unique spatial relationships between buildings, gardens, and landscapes.
Now we live in a society where most people live in dense urban areas and average 90% of time spent indoors. We are facing the challenge of our time, like other countries globally, how to create a natural environment that is accessible by city dwellers and workers and how to reconstruct human-nature relationships that contribute to physical mental well-being. Now, nature in and around buildings has become essential. And creating those environments can be achievable by holistic design approaches.
This lecture will share some recently built projects that suggest strong landscape – architecture ties. This will open discussion of how knowledge and expertise of landscape architecture can contribute to the effort of human-centric placemaking that provides health, safety, and welfare for occupants.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER:
Junko Anazawa (Atelier Fuuchi / Principal)
Junko Anazawa was born in 1972 in Tokyo Japan, she received bachelor’s degree in Urban Sociology from Tokyo Women’s Christian University and master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts (Current Weitzman School of Design) and went on working for local urban design/planning firms in Seattle, WA. Since relocating back to Japan in 2004, she has been practicing landscape design at Landscape Design, Inc. and Mitsui Jun and Associates Architect, Inc. She became independent in 2020, founded Atelier Fuuchi as her own design practice.
Her more than twenty years of professional experience includes single family residential, multi- family residential, hotels, office, and urban master planning projects of both public and private sectors.
Find out more about her work on atelierfuuchi
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, participants will be able to:

Understand Japanese garden traditions that provide fundamental views of how people see and relate to nature.
Learn how contemporary landscape architecture evolves from traditional garden design/construction practices and considering for a healthy and safe living conditions.
Review some urban landscape projects done by close collaboration with architectural design, which aim to provide health, safety, and welfare for users.
Familiarize with ‘interior landscaping’ approaches based on biophilic design and the effort to create human-centric spaces that provide healthy living conditions for the welfare of its occupants.

CES:
2.0 LU/HSW for AIA Members

The Future of Carbon Neutral Design by Junko Nakagawa (Atelier Ten)
2021-10-21 19:00 - 21:00 UTC
The Future of Carbon Neutral Design
by Junko Nakagawa (Atelier Ten)
Thursday, October 21, 2021 @19:00 JST (18:30 to 19:00: TEST SESSION)
SUMMARY:
As the urgency to address climate change and halt greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) continues to grow, designers have a responsibility to make smart design decisions to minimize their buildings’ GHG emissions. The steps to designing a carbon-smart building are two-fold: minimize embodied carbon and bring operational carbon to zero. This session will look at the holistic carbon profile of the built environment and the cutting-edge tools and processes that design teams can use to design carbon out of their projects.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Ar. Junko Nakagawa (Atelier Ten New York / Associate Director)
As an Associate Director at Atelier Ten and an experienced sustainable design consultant and architect, Junko possesses a strong interest in collaborative work with architects and design clients on high-performance building projects and masterplans. Her diverse range of experience includes past work on academic buildings, cultural and institutional structures, performing arts centers, high-rise commercial buildings, and master planning projects, with a particular focus on international projects.
Junko received her Master of Architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, participants will be able to:

Understand the relationship between embodied and operational GHG emissions, and the design process for reducing each.
Incorporate the process for smart embodied carbon design by understanding critical project milestones, types of analysis, and key stakeholders involved at each stage.
Understand the necessity of using hourly GHG emissions data vs a single annual value in predicting GHG emissions and reductions.
Apply the methodologies and processes for reducing embodied and operational GHG emissions to their own design work and/or energy analysis practice.

CES:
2.0 LU/HSW for AIA Members

Search Term by Shohei Shigematsu (OMA)
2021-11-20 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Search Term
by Shohei Shigematsu (OMA)
Saturday, November 20, 2021 @10:00 JST (9:30 TO 10:00: TEST SESSION)
ABOUT THE LECTURER:
Shohei Shigematsu (OMA / Partner)
Shohei Shigematsu is a Partner of OMA and the Director of its New York office. Sho was born in 1973 in Fukuoka. After graduating from the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering of Kyushu University, he moved to the Netherlands to join OMA in 1998. Since joining, he was appointed as Director of OMA New York in 2006 and became a Partner in 2008.
He has recently completed the Audrey Irmas Pavilion for a historic Jewish Temple in Los Angeles, the renovation of Sotheby’s New York headquarters, luxury high-rise towers in San Francisco and Miami, and OMA’s first ground-up building in New York City, a residential complex at 121 East 22nd Street. Sho has successfully completed designs for cultural venues including the Quebec National Beaux Arts Museum and the Faena Arts Center in Miami Beach. Currently in progress are the expansion of Buffalo’s Albright-Knox-Gundlach Art Museum, a new building for the New Museum in New York, and an underwater sculpture park in Miami Beach. Sho has also designed exhibitions for Prada, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory, and Dior’s first US retrospective. His urban and public space designs include an integrated mixed-use village masterplan for Facebook in Menlo Park and a post-Hurricane Sandy urban water strategy for New Jersey.
He oversees OMA’s projects in Japan, including Coach’s Omotesando flagship, a newly completed Tenjin Business Center in Fukuoka (2021) and Toranomon Hills Station Tower, mixed-use high-rise in Tokyo for Mori Building Co, Ltd. (2023). Sho has been a visiting professor at Cornell University Graduate School of Architecture (AAP), Columbia University GSAPP and Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and now since 2021, he was appointed as Professor at Human Environment Studies, and Director of Built Environment Center with Art & Technology (BeCAT), Kyushu University.
CES:
2.0 LU for AIA Members

Kadokawa Culture Museum, architecture in a new era that transcends binary opposition by Suguru Watanabe & Keiko Onohara (kengo kuma & associates)
2021-11-27 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Kadokawa Culture Museum, architecture in a new era that transcends binary opposition
by Suguru Watanabe & Keiko Onohara (kengo kuma & associates)
Saturday, November 27, 2021 @10:00 JST (9:30 TO 10:00: TEST SESSION)
SUMMARY:
Tokorozawa Sakura Town has various programs and technologies such as a book manufacturing factory using digital technology, a distribution warehouse, an office, an event hall linked to animation culture, a hotel, a retail store, Musashino Reiwa Shrine, and a seamlessly integrated library and museum. It is a city where people “participate” and “create”, connecting with the surrounding area. Introducing the Kadokawa Culture Museum, which symbolizes the most diversity of in Tokorozawa Sakura Town, with a focus on design.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:
Suguru Watanabe (Kengo Kuma & Associates / Partner)
Suguru Watanabe joined Kengo Kuma & Associates in 2005. He is involved in designing not only domestic and overseas architectural projects of various sizes, but also furniture, graphics, video, products, etc. At Tokorozawa Sakura Town, he is in charge of design supervision of the entire exterior, Kadokawa Culture Museum, Musashino Reiwa Shrine, and landscape.
Keiko Onohara (Kengo Kuma & Associates / Designing Staff)
Keiko Onohara joined Kengo Kuma & Associates in 2018. She was in charge of interior design of Kadokawa Culture Museum.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, participants will be able to:

Through practice at the Kadokawa Culture Museum, we will discover how architectural design connects regions, people, and culture.
We will explain the “stone” that is a feature of the exterior design of the Kadokawa Culture Museum, and clarify the differences from the conventional stone architecture and the visual effects obtained.
We will find the possibility of how the concept of modern diversity such as “mixture of high culture and low culture” can be made into architecture, by taking the spatial composition of the museum.
We will introduce new information provision methods (software) and bookshelves (hardware) that we have tried at the library, and clarify the differences from conventional libraries.

CES:
2.0 LU for AIA Members

President Club Virtual Meeting
2022-02-10 19:00 - 21:00 UTC
President Club Virtual Meeting
by Honorary Fellow Council on February 10th
On February 5th, The Annual AIA Japan (AIAJ) President Club Meeting was held via zoom again this year due to rapid spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The total cases reached 95,453 throughout Japan on February 5th.
The meeting was an AIAJ`s friendly tradition for giving advice from the past presidents to the newly elected president. During the meeting, 2022 AIAJ President Tomoaki Tanaka and eight former AIAJ presidents discussed AIA Japan and AIA International`s 2022 schedule, concerns about the architectural organizations in Japan, facilitating International Associate member engagement, supporting emerging professionals, and etc.
Tomoaki said he would take advice and promised that if the situation improved, he would arrange the face to face Presidents’ Club meeting.

The role of architecture in realizing carbon neutrality by Shin-ichi Tanabe (Waseda university)
2022-03-17 19:00 - 21:00 UTC
Online Lecture:
The role of architecture in realizing carbon neutrality
by Shin-ichi Tanabe (Waseda university)
Thursday, March 17, 2022 @19:00 JST (18:30 to 19:00: TEST SESSION)
SUMMARY:
Shin-ichi Tanabe, Professor at the Department of Architecture, Waseda University will address issues on carbon neutrality in the field of architecture from a global perspective. In Japan, 91% of greenhouse gasses are CO2, and 85% of it originates from energy use. Issues around energy efficiency, demand side management, renewable energy, and embodied carbon will be discussed.
In the latter half of the lecture, James Scott Brew, a member of AIA Japan and the Continuing Education System committee will join the crosstalk. After James briefly addresses his perspective on issues in response to Professor Tanabe`s lecture, they will explore together, with audience participation, what architects and architectural engineers can do for the future society.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, attendees will be able to:

Identify at least three (3) current global issues on carbon neutrality.
Explain what is required in the architecture field to resolve the carbon neutral issues.
Describe three (3) important strategies for the resolutions focusing on Japan.
Explore what architects and architectural engineers can do for the future society during the interactive crosstalk.

CES:
2.0 LU/HSW

Your Home & Your Health: Understanding Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) at Home by James Scott Brew (Nikken Sekkei)
2022-04-23 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Online Lecture:
Your Home & Your Health: Understanding Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) at Home
by James Scott Brew (Nikken Sekkei)
Saturday, April 23, 2022 @10:00 JST (09:30 to 10:00: TEST SESSION)
SUMMARY:
The air in your home is likely much worse than the air outside. Given how much time we spend at home, this can be bad for your health. This session will focus on an introduction to indoor air quality at home, why you should care about it, and what to do if your air needs improvement. In addition to identifying the most common sources of pollution in homes, the speaker will use stories of serious health impacts from common toxins and chemicals that happened to 3 architects—2 of whom he knows personally. The speaker will also introduce his personal air quality education journey and how he monitors air quality in his Tokyo home, as well as how to mitigate some of the common problems that most homes have.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, attendees will be able to:

Identify at least three (3) indoor air quality (IAQ) pollutants.
Explain the relationship between air quality and health.
Describe three (3) strategies to improve the IAQ in your home.
Explore tragic stories of personal health impacts from common household sources.

CES:
2.0 LU/HSW Pending for approval

Possibilities of In-Between Space by Ken Tadashi Oshima (The University of Washington)
2022-05-07 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Online Lecture:
Possibilities of In-Between Space
by Ken Tadashi Oshima (The University of Washington)
Saturday, May 7, 2022 10:00 – 12:00JST (9:30 – 10:00 is a test session)
SUMMARY:
This talk examines architectural design processes between Japan and a global constellation of creators, cultures and contexts through time and space. Notions of translation will be explored as a dynamic, creative process of transformation through examples ranging from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in comparison to his Midway Gardens design in Chicago, to the work of contemporary architects from Kengo Kuma to RCR and beyond.!
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, participants will be able to:

Describe building design strategies for international projects with differing site conditions.
Discuss the translation of design ideas in various cultural frameworks between various countries including Japan and the United States.
Describe design construction processes with varying building code regulations.
Describe lessons learned from post-occupancy evaluation of historic structures.

This lecture is the first one of two lectures that AIA Japan and I-AUD, Meiji University jointly host for Spring Semester 2022: https://iaud.jp/news/post-2022-05-02-233338/

Seeing green, Doing green: Biophilic Design and Environmentally-Responsible Behaviors by Erin M. Hamilton (Texas Tech University) ＆ Anne Herndon (Lake | Flato)
2022-07-16 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Online Lecture:
Seeing green, Doing green: Biophilic Design and Environmentally-Responsible Behaviors
by Erin M. Hamilton (Texas Tech University) ＆ Anne Herndon (Lake | Flato)
Saturday, July 16, 2022 @ 10:00 – 12:00, JST (09:30 to 10:00: TEST SESSION)
SUMMARY:
The challenge of global climate change necessitates interdisciplinary problem solving. In the built environment sector, the pursuit of sustainability requires not only constructing and maintaining a green building, but ensuring that we consider how best to support the green behaviors of occupants within these buildings. On the university campus, green buildings are especially positioned to serve as places of environmental education and in turn, occupant awareness of green building features supports environmentally responsible behaviors (ERBs).
This project explores how occupants interpret the sustainability of two LEED certified buildings at the Universities at Shady Grove in the U.S. state of Maryland. The design of the first, the LEED Platinum Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Education Facility by Lake|Flato Architects & Cooper Carry, incorporated biophilic intent, while that of the second, a LEED Gold building, did not. In other words, the LEED Platinum building looks like a sustainable building, whereas the sustainability of the LEED Gold building could easily be missed. This mixed-methods study involves an online survey of building occupants, photograph-based methods, and follow-up interviews with a subset of occupants. The outcomes of this work contribute theoretically to our understanding of how to support and promote ERBs within green buildings. The integration of nature and natural analogues into the built environment through biophilic design promotes both physical and psychological well-being. This project aims to lay the foundation for discussing the role of biophilic design in promoting both personal and planetary well-being.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, attendees will be able to:

Generate examples of the 14 Patterns of Biophilia in practice.
Identify high-impact green building and biophilic features that communicate sustainable design to building occupants.
Understand how biophilic design elements contribute to the creation of a restorative environment.
Identify opportunities for leveraging built architectural works to collect post-occupancy data about occupant perception and behavior.

CES:
2.0 LU/HSW
watch recorded video

Creating a Forest in the City: Pioneering Wood Structure in Architecture by Kazuyoshi Kimura (Shelter Inc.)
2022-10-28 19:00 - 21:00 UTC
Online Lecture: Creating a Forest in the City: Pioneering Wood Structure in Architecture
by Kazuyoshi Kimura (Shelter Inc.)
FRIDAY, OCT 28, 2022 19:00 – 21:00JST (18:30 – 19:00 is a test session)
BIO:
Kazuyoshi Kimura, Chairman and Founder of Shelter Inc.
Graduated from the Department of Architecture, Ashikaga Institute of Technology in1972. In 1973, he studied at the Graduate School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. Established Shelter Home Co., Ltd. (now Shelter Inc.) in 1974. He and Shelter revolutionized wooden architecture in Japan with the development of the joint hardware construction method “KES system” and the wooden fireproof technology “COOL WOOD”. Established the Japan Fireproof Timber Building Association and assumed the post of chairman in 2014. Currently the vice-chairman of the Council for Promoting Timber Buildings in Cities, and the chairman of the Yamagata Prefecture Association of Invention and Innovation.
SUMMARY:
In this lecture, CEO Kazuyoshi Kimura will introduce the innovative work in wood structure being pioneered by Shelter. Inc. Included will be examples of their latest mid-to-high-rise timber buildings using the innovative joint hardware construction methods and wooden fireproofing technology, as well as examples of artistic timber architecture using 3D precut technology. Using these unique technologies, Shelter will explain how they achieve their goal to create a forest in the city, and an eco-friendly “Timber City.”
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, participants will be able to:

Explain the various benefits to the environment by using wood structure instead of steel or concrete.
Describe the simple but strong steel joinery system that allows wood structure members to be erected quickly and with great strength.
Investigate the fireproofing method that allows wood structures to have a 1, 2, and 3 hour fire rating, making it comparable to steel and concrete and allowing it to be used in high rise structures.
Explore the flexibility of wood as a dynamic building material that is suitable for many modern designs.

CES:
2.0 LU/HSW
watch video

Christian Dimmer: Connecting the Dots: Creating Resilient Communities through Transition Design
2023-02-24 19:00 - 21:00 UTC
Connecting the Dots: Creating Resilient Communities through Transition Design
Friday, February 24, 2023 19:00 – 21:00
Christian Dimmer is Associate-Professor for Urban Studies at Waseda University’s School of International Liberal Studies (SILS). He graduated with honours from the inter-disciplinary Spatial and Environmental Planning program of the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. Christian earned his PhD from The University of Tokyo on the emergence of public space concepts in Japanese modern urban planning. As a JSPS post-doc at Tokyo University’s Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, he researched the politics and representations of public space in contemporary Japan. Christian served as an Assistant Professor for Urban Design Studies at The University of Tokyo between 2012 and 2016 and for Urban Studies as Waseda between 2016 – 2021. He also taught courses on urban commons, participatory place-making, planning theory, global urbanism, as well as public and private in the city at Keio University and at Sophia University. He is co-founder of the charitable disaster response organisations Tohoku Planning Forum as well as the Alliance for Humanitarian Architecture. Christian is part of the planning firm Frontoffice Tokyo. His research interests are the emergence of human-centered design theories and practices, new urban commons, transition design, policy mobilities with focus on co-housing and Doughnut Economics.
Registration: http://ptix.at/G6aAJ6

SUMMARY:
Global environmental problems such as climate change, rapid loss of biodiversity and resource depletion have gained rapid prominence on political agendas worldwide, while man-made infrastructure systems and cities have grown more complex yet more vulnerable. Not least the COVID19 pandemic, the Russian Invasion in Ukraine and frequent recent disasters have revealed the vulnerability of highly interdependent, globalised food, energy, or trade systems. Today’s pervasive, interrelated ‘wicked problems’ differ significantly in scale and complexity from those ‘tame problems’ of the past which could be addressed through incremental clean technologies and local policy responses. Although the socio-ecological problems of today require substantive ‘transitions’ in the near future, established professions and institutions are slow to respond.
These required system changes in the energy, transport, community, housing or agri-food systems are ‘socio-technical’ because they not only entail new technologies, but also changes in markets, mindsets, social practices, political cultures and deep-rooted cultural meanings and values. The emergent domain of transition design acknowledges the fact that we live in ‘transitional times’ with perpetual change finally seen as ‘the (new) normal’. Accordingly, transition design takes as its central premise the need for ‘rolling’ socio-environmental and socio-technical transitions to move to more sustainable futures and argues that design thinking has a key role to play. Transition design applies an understanding of the interconnectedness of social, economic, political & natural systems. It seeks to develop synergistic, networked, emergent solutions at all levels of spatio-temporal scale and in ways that directly improve the quality of life and safeguard human-centred development. It advocates the re-conception of entire lifestyles, with the aim of making them more place-based, convivial & participatory and harmonising them with the natural environment.
In this lecture we will first examine the complexity of so-called wicked problems —problems that are difficult or impossible to solve because of their complex and co-dependent nature. We will discuss a system of possible metrics that help to assess the appropriateness of transition design interventions. In the second part, we will explore novel, existing design interventions mostly from Japan that are living up to the holistic principles of transition design, as they were developed by scholars at The School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. Lastly, the lecture will conclude with a discussion of concepts like ‘cosmopolitan localism’ (Manzini), ‘pluriverse’ (Escobar), or ‘inter-localisation’ (Iwasaki) that promise a positive way forward, towards more empowered, resilient communities in an age of intensifying planetary crises.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After attending this program, participants will be able to:

explore how the profound social, environmental and economic crises are impacting cities and rural regions, and how governments, the corporate sector as well as community activists and citizens are responding,
map and analyse a ‘wicked problem’ and identify its related ‘leverage points’,
discuss different concepts for assessing the appropriateness of transition/ social design interventions,
examine how change-makers, creative communities, or social innovators are experimenting with alternative social, economical, environmental, architectural, as well as place-making practices and lifestyles.

Ellen Lou(SOM): Reactivating Cities - Accelerating Urban Regeneration to Save Our Downtowns
2023-04-15 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Saturday, April 15, 2023 10:00am – 12:00 pm(JST)
SPEAKER BIO
Ellen Lou, FAIA, AICP, LEED-AP BD+C
Principal, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Ellen Lou works at the forefront of urban regeneration, advancing new development models and climate-adaptive design strategies for cities across North America and Asia. As a principal for SOM’s City Design Practice, she tackles the complex challenges of urban transformation, integrating priorities for cultural preservation, social equity, ecological resilience, and economic vitality into actionable visions. In the San Francisco Bay Area, she has shaped the development of key neighborhoods, from San Francisco’s Transbay District to San Jose’s Downtown and Diridon Station Area. Her master plans for innovation communities and academic campuses have set the stage for public-private investment in California, Salt Lake City, and Shanghai. In Asia, her pioneering strategies for district-scale preservation and catalyzing ecological restoration through new town development have influenced development throughout the region. Ellen serves on the boards of the Institute for Transportation Development Policy (a global NGO), SPUR, a San Francisco Bay Area urban policy think tank, and the Visiting Committee for the Department of Urban Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
LECTURE SUMMARY:
American cities are facing a major crisis. As we transition into the post-pandemic era, people have not returned to work in the Central Business Districts (CBDs) as intensely as pre-pandemic time. Office vacancies remain stubbornly high in these districts. Companies with jobs that could be performed online and provided employees the options for hybrid work (in-person and remote). As a result, many cities are increasingly facing the challenge of empty downtowns, business closure and reduced tax revenue. Many cities also lost residential population, as people moved to the suburbs and even other cities or regions that can afford them more space, amenities, and better environment. The urban exodus further exacerbates the decline of urban centers. Are downtowns dying? Urban centers could recover from the impact of the pandemic and changing demands if downtowns could adapt for a hybrid workplace future and offer attractive culture, entertainment, lifestyle choices, and a sustainable environment. Then these urban centers would thrive again. In fact, many of these trends are not new as evident by the vibrant mixed-use urban districts of some of the growing cities. The post pandemic trends just accelerated the need for transformation. This presentation discusses the challenges cities’ face, current trend, and shifts inclusion best practices to reactivate downtowns through workplace adaptations, residential conversion; Integrate education, sports, cultural attraction, entertainment destinations as catalyst for transformation; place making through design; and climate adaptation that will transform our downtowns for a resilient and carbon neutral future.
Case studies in North America and the Pacific Rim will be introduced to demonstrate the urban design and planning approaches, policies and lessons learned.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After this session, participants will be able to:
1. Identify challenges and current trend downtowns face in the post pandemic era

High office vacancies, loss of downtown workers, shorter work week
Diversity in business trends
Loss of tax revenue

Describe the urban design and planning approaches for livable and sustainable placemaking:

High levels of walkability
Mixed-use districts
A strong sense of place and social cohesion
People-friendly public realm

Utilize strategies to create healthy and safe places which includes:

Introducing a safe and convenient movement network within the neighborhood.
Encourage healthy and green transport by creating complete streets for both pedestrian and bicycle circulation.
Integrate sports and health-care facilities in the community

Apply urban design approaches to enhance the well-being of the residents:

Create a diverse range of experiences for recreation and entertainment.
Introduce a network of public open spaces at different scales and for a variety of uses and users.
Promoting the creation of educational institutions in the area for continued learning.
Create fitness opportunities in a neighborhood

Identify the Sustainable and Climate Adaptation features of an urban center, including

High-density, compact transit-oriented development which reduces the regional carbon footprint and emissions.
Integrate the park design with architectural sustainability programs and opportunities to re-create environmental ecosystems.
Convert wide roadway to open spaces incorporating storm water treatment and recycling of wastewater on-site for reused in the buildings and irrigation.

Aaron Kelley, LEED AP, ASLA: Sense & The Singularity: Designing Tangible Landscapes in an Evolving Global Reality
2023-06-24 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
SPEAKER BIO:
As a Landscape Architect, Urban Designer, and Director at James Corner Field Operations, Aaron Kelley insists that creative and humane designs are best accomplished through rich interdisciplinary collaboration. Aaron has worked to enhance living systems around the world, focusing not only on the craft of placemaking, but also on the shape of our collective imagination. At Field Operations, he has led various projects, including NBCUniversal’s expanded studio campus in Los Angeles, the winning commission for Taopu Central Park in Shanghai, and the award-winning “Urban Metabolism” exhibit for the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam. In addition to his project work, Aaron is a guest lecturer and studio critic at various institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island School of Design, and La Universidad Europea de Madrid.
Lecture Description:
Human habitat in the 21st century might be described by two, unprecedented themes:

The fragility and interconnectedness of environments impacted by humans (e.g. climate change, deforestation, etc.)
The emergence of virtual society as a new form of habitat, communication, and community (e.g. social media, artificial intelligence)

Through the lens of a contemporary landscape architecture practice, this presentation serves to remind us of the incalculable value of our tangible relationships with the earth and our communities. Together, we will navigate the intricacies of designing living systems at various scales, and uncover the potential for resilience, equity, and joy in every act of design.
Learning Objectives:
After attending the lecture, participants will be able to effectively:

Describe the evolving role of landscape architecture in the construction of resilient and equitable cities.
Advocate for the value of living environments in an increasingly virtual world; from the scale of the human body, to the scale of the garden, to the scale of the city.
Recognize opportunities to foster joy, fulfillment, and creativity through design and collaboration.
Embrace a renewed sense of inquiry into the scale and impact of each design project.

watch recorded video

Jorge Almazán: Rebuilding Public SPACE from the Bottom-up: Research and Practice from Japan
2023-07-29 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Jorge Almazán: Rebuilding Public SPACE from the Bottom-up: Research and Practice from Japan
Saturday, July 29, 2023 10:00 – 12:00

SPEAKER BIO:
Jorge Almazán is an architect based in Tokyo and an associate professor at Keio University. After graduating from the Architecture School of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, he obtained his Ph.D. at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His office, Jorge Almazán Architects, is committed to environmentally responsible and socially inclusive projects. His awarded architectural designs for urban regeneration include the First Prize of the Ota City Urban Landscape Award (2019) and the Japan Institute of Architects’ Excellence Award (2018, 2022). He recently published “Emergent Tokyo: Designing the spontaneous city” (Oro Editions, 2021) and its Japanese version (Gakugei Shuppan, 2022).
LECTURE SUMMARY:
Drawing from research and design practice in Japan, Jorge Almazán will argue for the significance of architecture and urban design to rebuild the public realm in a bottom-up, emergent way. He will connect the research in his latest publication—Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City—with his projects and public space interventions in Japan.
A wealth of publications contends that Japan historically lacks a sense of publicness. Some attribute this to the absence of a pre-Meiji Period equivalent word to “public” in Japanese. Others suggest Japan’s lack of Western-style civic traditions. This lecture rejects this view as cultural essentialism that denies the importance of public space in Japan. Almazán builds the case for architecture and urban design as one of the primary devices that any society (Western or not) has in order to create and enhance public life.
This lecture will tackle this issue in the two radically different built environments to which Japan is gradually polarizing. The presentation’s first half focuses on Tokyo as Japan’s prime metropolitan agglomeration. Almazán will show how postwar Tokyo developed an emergent publicness that is alive today. However, it is increasingly under threat from neoliberal urban policies favoring the large-scale corporate redevelopment of its central neighborhoods.
The second half will focus on projects led by the speaker, primarily in small-city Japan. Through mapping, interventions in public space, and renovations of abandoned houses into community spaces, Almazán explores the benefits and difficulties of enhancing the public realm in the suburbanized and car-dependent environment of regional Japan.
Since the 1990s, cities worldwide have made a “neoliberal turn” in their policies, leaving the task of designing public space to the so-called market forces. Japan is no exception. As a result, Tokyo and many small cities across Japan have lost their vibrant streets and communities. How can architecture contribute to amending this tendency? What is the role of the architect in rebuilding public space? The final part of this lecture will address these questions and suggest possible answers on how to rebuild public life from the bottom up.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After the lecture, participants will be able to
1. Discuss public space as a fundamental realm in any human habitat, avoiding the cultural essentialism that often revolves around the discussion on Japanese cities.
2. Describe specific features in Tokyo’s urbanism that allowed the city to build a unique public realm from the bottom up.
3. Identify the differences between public spaces in Tokyo and small Japanese cities. Examine the common challenges Japanese small cities share with other suburbanized regions worldwide.
4. Verify the potential and the limitations of a bottom-up approach to public space through the study of real interventions.
watch recorded video

Takako TAJIMA, AIA NCARB ASLA Beautiful Seams: Utilizing Urban Rivers to Stitch Together a New Kind of Urbanism
2023-10-28 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Takako TAJIMA, AIA NCARB ASLA
Beautiful Seams:
Utilizing Urban Rivers to Stitch Together a New Kind of Urbanism
Saturday, October 28 at 10am(JST)

SPEAKER BIO:
Takako Tajima is principal of Tajima Open Design Office and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Southern California. Like her background, Takako’s professional experience ranges in type, scale, and scope. Currently, she is contributing to a set of new objective design standards for the City of Palm Desert and designing the open space components of several housing projects being developed as part of California Department of Housing and Community Development’s Homekey initiative. At USC, Takako leads graduate level design studios and teaches in the Asian Architecture and Landscape Urbanism study abroad program for undergraduate architecture students.
LECTURE SUMMARY:
Throughout history, human settlements relied on rivers as sources of water and food, means of circulation and transportation, and places of recreation. The history of urbanization, however, is also the history of degraded riparian systems. This lecture will examine the plight of rivers in the 20th and 21st centuries and the prospects for urbanism when we reorient our cities to the rivers from which they emerged.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After the lecture, participants will be able to

Identify the differences between perennial rivers and intermittent rivers.
Describe the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ role and jurisdiction relative to rivers.
Define the purpose of the Clean Water Act.
Identify examples of point source and non-point source pollution.
Explain how the “watershed approach” differs from past approaches to environmental management.

Helena Capkova: Intersections of Central European and Japanese Modernisms / Bedřich Feuerstein and Antonin Raymond architects
2023-11-25 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Helena Capkova:
Intersections of Central European and Japanese Modernisms / Bedřich Feuerstein and Antonin Raymond architects
Saturday, November 25 at 10 AM (JST)

SPEAKER BIO:
Helena Čapková is a Tokyo/ Kyoto/Prague based curator, researcher, and art/ architecture history professor at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto. Since 2010, she has published and lectured extensively about the specific nature of Japanese modernism and avant garde that she considers as an inherent part of art history, traditionally perceived as Western. Her publications on this topic include: Transnational networkers – Iwao and Michiko Yamawaki and the formation of Japanese Modernist Design (2014), Believe in socialism … – architect Bedřich Feuerstein and his perspective on modern Japan and architecture (2016); English-Japanese publication – Antonin Raymond in Japan, 1948-1976, recollections of friends (2022) and Bedřich Feuerstein, architect. Prague-Paris-Tokyo (2022).
LECTURE SUMMARY:
Japanese and Czechoslovak modern architecture history share a surprisingly lot in common. The two countries intersected at the end of the WWI when the Czechoslovak Legions, the founding army troops of the Czechoslovak Republic, started leaving the Siberian front via Japan and as a consequence the first diplomatic contacts were established. The Czechoslovak embassy opened in 1920. Parallel to these developments, Antonín Raymond arrived in Japan from the US and established a successful architectural office in 1921. Raymond invited Feuerstein to join him in 1926 and the two architects created a number of projects in which they merged the foreign and local architectural traditions together. This lecture will introduce the legacy of B. Feuerstein and A. Raymond and their operational strategies in Japan where they worked before and after WWII.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After the lecture, participants will be able to:
1. Describe the situation in Japanese modernism in terms of relations towards foreign architects in the interwar period.
2. Discuss Japanese architectural modernism in the context of the international architectural scene.
3. Identify buildings by A. Raymond and B. Feuerstein and recognise differences in their design language.
4. Illustrate historical development in interwar Japanese architectural history by a specific set of architectural projects.
how to join the event:
Joining a lecture is free and easy to attend from anywhere!
When: Saturday, Nov 25, 2023 10:00am – 12:00 pm(JST)
Online Platform: Zoom Webinar (live broadcasting)
Registration Fee: Free
Organizer: AIA Japan
CES: 2LUs/HSW
watch recorded video

Michael Eliason: Low Carbon Living with Climate Adaptive Ecodistricts & Buildings
2024-02-22 19:00 - 21:00 UTC
Title: Low Carbon Living with Climate Adaptive Ecodistricts & Buildings
Session type: Presentation on topic for approximately 1-hour followed by discussion and questions. This session will focus on various threats posed by changing climate – and options available to mitigate them. Topics will include policy recommendations, blind spots in the building industry based on global experience and network, and areas of needed research to adapt to effects climate change will have on built environment. Discussion centered around a call to action from the audience.
Presenter: Michael Eliason: Founder, Larch Lab. Architect, author, Passivhaus specialist
Michael Eliason is the founder of Larch Lab – part architecture and urbanism studio, part ‘think and do’ tank – focusing on research and policy; decarbonized low-energy buildings; and climate adaptive urbanism. Michael is also a writer, and an award-winning architect specializing in mass timber, social housing, baugruppen (urban cohousing), and ecodistricts. His career has been dedicated to advancing innovation and broadening the discourse on sustainable development, passivhaus, non-market housing, and decarbonized construction. He serves on the board of Seattle’s new Passivhaus Social Housing Developer PDA. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech and became a Passivhaus consultant in 2010. His professional experience includes work in both the Pacific Northwest, and Germany.
Learning objectives:

Articulate the difference between climate mitigation, and adaptation
Explain the extreme impacts climate change will have on buildings and communities
Understand design strategies that can be employed to adapt to extremes
Understand the risk and potential liabilities of ignoring climate change and building science.

Problem statement: Our buildings were designed for a climate that no longer exists.
The weather data for building envelopes and mechanical systems is based on historic averages that have been superseded by the last decade of Climate Change. These averages do not take into account wildly divergent peaks/extremes or the climate zone migration that is occurring with Climate Change. We are just beginning to see the extremes related to wildfires, flooding, and heat – and the impacts will be far reaching.
In 2014, the Supreme Court of California found that architects owe a duty of care to occupants and residents of buildings. The rapidly deteriorating weather due to climate change are affecting buildings in ways out-of-date energy models could never have predicted. Extended wildfire smoke events. Deluges dropping more water than roofs and drains can handle. Overheating due to poor design, which can become deadly during heat events on building configuration at 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Attendees will learn about building threats from climate change extremes, ways to mitigate them, and possibilities for reducing risks and liability as planners
Are your buildings and housing designed to adapt to climate change, or will it facilitate dangerous and potentially deadly outcomes for residents? Architects, developers, and owners will need to rapidly pivot to adapting to these new changes. This session will cover some of the threats involved with Climate Change, what strategies design teams and owners should be employing to adapt, and what the ethical liability and implications may be in a rapidly devolving climate.
Topic area: Building planning for extreme climate events: How building design today is not designed to mitigate and adapt to a wildly changing climate. Mitigating liability for practitioners by understanding how our buildings will perform in heat domes, cold snaps, wildfire smoke events, deluges – and migrating climate zones.
3518 Fremont Ave N #372, Seattle, WA 98103 T +1.206.806.3605
M info@larchlab.com W larchlab.com

NCARB & You: AXP, ARE, & Certification - AIA Japan: Online Session on Path to U.S. Licensure
2024-09-30 19:00 - 21:00 (Asia/Tokyo)
NCARB & You: AIA Japan
Join NCARB Assistant Vice President, International Relations, Patricia Ramallo, AIA, NCARB, MBA, CAE, LEED AP BD+C & Homes, for a presentation on a range of licensure topics relevant to students, aspiring architects, supervisors, architects, and people in the architecture profession. The presentation will review the steps necessary to achieve licensure to become an architect and other programs to get the most out of your career in architecture.
Topics will include:
• Background of NCARB
• The entities involved in the licensure process
• How to establish an NCARB Record
• How to progress successfully through the Architectural Experience Program® (AXP®)
• What to expect with the Architect Registration Examination® (ARE®)
• Recent changes to NCARB programs • Value of the NCARB Certificate • International Pathways

Join our online session with NCARB to discuss and answer your questions on how to become licensed in the U.S. while based in Japan.
NCARB is the National Council of Architectural Registration Board headquartered in Washington D.C.
This session is free and all are welcome.
Registration here

Cero 9 : Cristina Díaz Moreno & Efrén García Grinda Lecture
2024-10-10 19:00 - 21:00 (Asia/Tokyo)
Cero 9 Founder and Principals, Cristina Díaz Moreno & Efrén García Grinda
Description
Worlding is the term used to review the architectural work and trajectory of Cristina Díaz Moreno and Efrén García Grinda, founders of the Madrid-based architecture studio amid.cero9. As an intellectual design method, worlding implies a particular way of being in the world. It considers a range of complexities, difficulties and challenges, while celebrating richness and diversity. Worlding also implies the activity of worldmaking as the definition of alternative, as well as real, concrete and physical micro-worlds. The definition of these parallel yet plausible worlds, understood as small-scale and autonomous material environments, offers an alternative to the exploitation, constant transformation and exhaustion of our physical one.
About Cero 9
Cristina Díaz Moreno & Efrén García Grinda are principals and founders of the internationally recognized architectural practice amid.cer09. Founded back in 1997 as a collaborative platform to investigate the intersections between architecture, culture and nature, the practice has evolved into a research-based design practice focused on contemporary urban, technological and cultural challenges. Intensely committed to the development of methodological disciplinary processes, amid.cero’s projects combine constructive precision with conceptual clarity and uncover the specific opportunities and special nature of each context, cultivating an approach to the contemporary notion of space that enlists sociology, technology, media and politics.
With a vast academic experience, they have been recently appointed Professors and directors of the Studio 1 in the Institute of Architecture at the Angewandte, Vienna, succeeding Zaha Hadid (2000-2015) and Kazuyo Sejima (2015-2019). They have been Visiting Lecturers at SOA, Princeton University (2017-), Diploma Unit Masters at the Architectural Association (2009-18), Visiting Professors at the Institut für Kunst und Architektur at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna (2013-14, 2018-19), Design Critics in Architecture and co-directors of an Option Studio at the GSD, Harvard University (2015-2017) and Visiting Professors and Unit co-directors in the SAC StädSchule Architectural Class, Frankfürt (2016-2017).
REGISTER HERE

AIA Japan Board Meeting
2024-10-31 19:00 - 21:00 (Asia/Tokyo)
All members welcome.

AIA Japan AGM/Board Meeting
2025-01-30 19:00 - 21:00 UTC
Join Zoom Meeting from this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82731332957?pwd=[REDACTED]

2025 AIA International Spring Conference
2025-03-20 15:30 - 2025-03-22 22:30 (Asia/Tokyo)
Join us for a 3-day virtual conference on how architects around the world are innovating to shape the future of the built environment!
Register Today!

About this event

Dates: Thursday 20 March – Saturday 22 March 2025
Cost: FREE (for AIA members and Non-members)
Total CES: Estimated 15 LUs for AIA Members (tbc)
See our Spring Conference Program page to learn more about the individual events on offer!
Event Description
Architecture continues to push boundaries, redefine expectations, and inspire through innovation. Trailblazing Architecture highlights the groundbreaking ideas, transformative technologies, and pioneering approaches shaping the future of our built environment.
From sustainable design solutions to adaptive reuse, and from advanced technologies to equity-driven practices, architects are leading the way in addressing complex global challenges. This conference aims to spotlight the diverse ways professionals worldwide are reshaping our industry, imagining new possibilities, and influencing a brighter future for all.
Join us for a global discussion on how architects are embracing bold strategies to redefine the limits of design and construction!
This 3-day virtual conference will bring you lectures, panel discussions, building tours and more from around the world. Conference sessions will be hosted by the 7 International Chapters in Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, the Middle East, Shanghai, and the United Kingdom, the International Sections in Latin America, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Taipei and more of our members worldwide!
Attendance is free and open to all, whether you are an AIA member or not. This year, registrants can choose to add a donation to support our work. As a non-profit organization, all funds raised will go directly towards ongoing AIA International initiatives, including the delivery of the Spring Conference.
Sessions will be available on demand following the conference day. AIA members can receive CES credits for participating live, or for watching on demand.
We are thrilled to bring you an array of speakers who in are helping to move the profession forward. They include Chris Lepine, Director at Zaha Hadid Architects, Heath May FAIA, Partner and Executive Vice President at HKS, James Richärd, FAIA of Richard Kennedy Architects and Sir David Adjaye.

2025 AIAJ Design Awards Submission Deadline
2025-11-14 17:00 (Asia/Tokyo)
The AIA Japan Chapter invites AIA members assigned to the Japan Chapter, as well as AIA members working on projects in Japan, to submit their projects for the 2025 AIA Japan Design Award Program by November 14, 2025. The 2025 AIA Japan Design Award Ceremony is scheduled for December 13, 2025.
The mission of the AIA Japan Design Awards Program is to encourage excellence in architectural design and planning, and to provide a platform through which architects can gain recognition from both their peers and the public. The goal is to elevate the standards of architectural design excellence for the benefit of the architectural community and society at large.
With five distinct categories—Architecture (large-scale project), Architecture (small-scale project, single detached house), Interior Architecture, Urban Planning, and a Special Entry Category welcoming architects who have not yet joined the AIA—the AIA Japan Design Awards provide a comprehensive platform for architects to showcase their creativity and technical prowess.

JURORS
We are also honored to introduce this year’s distinguished jury:

Michel van Ackere, AIA, Professor-in-Practice, Meiji University I-AUD; Former Associate, Maki and Associates; Founding President, AIA Japan

Shirin Frangoul-Brückner, Managing Director and founding partner of ATELIER BRÜCKNER

Rita Topa, Partner, Kengo Kuma & Associates; Portuguese Architect/Urban Planner based in Tokyo

Together, they bring an exceptional range of expertise across architecture, interiors, and urban design. We look forward to recognizing outstanding design achievements that reflect innovation, craft, and cultural dialogue.
AWARDS: AIA Japan Award (優秀賞)、Honorable Mention (佳作賞)
The jury will determine the number of awards in each category. They may also decide not to award any submitted projects in a category. Awards are based on quality, not competition, and there is no limit on the number of awards.

ENTRY CATEGORIES

ARCHITECTURE SMALL PROJECT
(single-family detached home or less than 500 m² gross floor area)
Eligible entries may be either new construction or renovation/restoration.

ARCHITECTURE LARGE PROJECT
(more than 500 m² gross floor area)
Eligible entries may be either new construction or renovation/restoration.

INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
Eligible entries may be large or small in scope and may involve new construction, renovation, or preservation/restoration.

URBAN PLANNING
Eligible entries may include urban design projects, planning projects, civic amenity improvements, campus plans, environmental programs, or redevelopment projects. Projects
should not be individual buildings.

SPECIAL ENTRY
Includes one-year AIA membership with free entry; follows the same rules as the four categories above and entrants must register with AIA Japan. Entrants are required to complete a membership application and purchase one membership for the current year via the AIA website.
Membership Application: https://www.aia.org/membership

For multiple-building projects, the submitting Architect (or portion thereof) must provide detailed evidence of authorship for the relevant portion.
Projects for architecture large project, small project, and interiors must be built work completed between January 1, 2020, and October 31, 2025. For the Urban Planning Category, incomplete or ongoing projects may be recognized if a significant portion has been completed or implemented by a local authority since January 1, 2015.
For “Special Entry” Category, you will be required to produce evidence that you have applied for AIA membership as part of the submission review process. If submitting multiple projects, only one accompanying membership application is required.

FEES AND ELIGIBILITY

APPLICANT CATEGORY
FEE

AIA Japan Chapter
10,000 JPY per entry

Other Chapters
100 USD per entry, includes international transaction and currency conversion charges.

Non-Member
Free with proof of membership application

Multiple entries by the same individual are allowed.
Entrants must be AIA members assigned to the Japan Chapter or AIA members with a project in Japan, in good standing, including Architect members, International Associate AIA (Int. Assoc. AIA) members, and AIA Honorary members. Membership must be valid and active as of November 15, 2025.
Entrants must also be able to claim authorship or significant authorship of the project being submitted.

APPLICATION
Accepting submissions until Friday, November 14, 2025 at 5:00pm Japan Standard Time (JST), UTC+9. Download application materials now for further detailed instructions on how to submit.

DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORMS

FOR INQUIRY

Please contact the Award Program Coordinator or a Committee Member for further information.
Email: aiaj.design.awards@gmail.com

AWARDS CEREMONY
Awards will be presented during the Year-End Event on Saturday, December 13, 2025. AIA Japan Chapter encourages all entrants to attend the AIA Japan Design Award Ceremony. Award winners are required to present their project for 5–10 minutes at the ceremony.
SAVE THE DATE MORE DETAILS TO COME!
