Housing & Environmental Design Laboratory

TOKYO VERNACULAR 2026 International GPBL Workshop on Architecture, Culture and Urban Ethnography Shimizu Laboratory, School of Architecture and Design, Shibaura Institute of Technology, is pleased to announce the launch of TOKYO VERNACULAR 2026, an international Global Project-Based Learning (GPBL) workshop that explores the hidden cultural landscapes of contemporary Tokyo. The workshop focuses on Akihabara and its surrounding districts as a unique urban environment where tec

An international GPBL (Global Project-Based Learning) workshop titled “ECOMUSEUM in Chiang Mai” was conducted in Chiang Mai, Thailand, as part of GPBL2026 activities. The workshop brought together students and researchers from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Chiang Mai University, and Maejo University, and consisted of two main phases combining practical conservation activities and urban survey-based design proposals. During the first phase, participants spent four days wor

Thailand’s first reminiscence therapy center has been established in Ton Haen Noi Village, Chiang Mai. The center was created as a space for practicing “Kaisoho” (reminiscence therapy), a method that encourages elderly people to recall and share memories through conversation, objects, photographs, and everyday experiences from the past. At the center, Faai-san and Setsuko-san, who learned the reminiscence therapy method in Nagoya, Japan, kindly organized and facilitated activ

On March 8, a reminiscence workshop (WS) was conducted in Tainan, Taiwan. The workshop was organized mainly by the Taiwan research team and held in the Jibei community, a settlement known for being home to the Siraya people (Siraya / 西拉雅族), one of the Indigenous groups of Taiwan. The Siraya are classified as a subgroup of the Pingpu peoples and are mainly distributed in the Tainan region. The workshop began with a field walk through the community guided by Professor Alak Akad