1) The Industrious City - Urban Industry in the Digital Age
2) Designing the Next 1000 Years - Sustainability beyond Growth
3) New form of habitat for migrant workers in India (*Co-research project with Hiroto Kobayashi Lab at SFC)
Designing the Next 1000 Years - Sustainability beyond Growth
This research lab began in the fall of 2023. During the fall semester, research was conducted on local cities within Japan, exploring the necessity for future transformation in regions facing population decline and economic contraction. The focus was particularly on how local government as well as communities could transition to sustainable models based on a long-term perspective.
Starting from the spring semester of 2024, the focus shifts to more practical activities. We have selected specific regions and are preparing to design a master plan using the integral design methodology. In this project, instead of considering sustainability in the usual spans of 10 or 50 years for regional revitalization, we ask: What if we were to consider a time span of 1000 years?
By looking at the past 1,000 years of history and projecting into the next 1,000 years, this study aims to examine changes in land use and human activities on an unprecedented time scale. It explores how to record and preserve information and knowledge, and how to pass it on to future generations. The study investigates methods to systematically preserve the necessary information for the long-term sustainability of regional culture, environment, and economy, and to ensure its future utilization.
Furthermore, based on the philosophy of “sustainability without growth,” this project emphasizes maintaining the scale, culture, and environment of the region without pursuing economical growth. By curbing material consumption and efficiently utilizing local resources, it suggests the possibility of achieving a richer quality of life. The project also explores ways in which small communities can build a sustainable society while preserving their own culture and environment.
Through case studies in Japanese local cities such as Oiso Town in Kanagawa Prefecture, the research advances the study of sustainable regional development not dependent on growth, and proposes methodologies for information archiving and development models based on these principles.
This research project adopts a different approach from the methods traditionally used in "machizukuri" in Japan. Centering on the concept of sustainability not reliant on economic growth, it effectively combines top-down and bottom-up approaches, and integrates both analog and digital methods to attempt the realization of a more comprehensive and innovative urban design.
“Cities have always been places where production and commerce, working and living are physically and functionally integrated. Only with the rise of modern industry have zoning regulations been introduced to separate these functions in space. However, what is the role of such regulations when industry is digitized increasingly emission-free, and based on innovation more than mass production? How should working and living be combined to make mobility and energy consumption become more sustainable? And what are the opportunities in creating urban areas based on social equity and resilience, in a volatile world characterized by digital disruption, migration and demographic shifts?” (The Industrious City, 2021, Lars Müller Publisher).