Housing & Environmental Design Laboratory

A traditional wooden house is never just a shelter. It holds repair skills, family memory, seasonal routines, village rituals, and the quiet logic of local climate. The Redesigning a Village Workshop in Laos treats that house as a living classroom. Scheduled for February 18 to February 28, 2027, this 11-day GPBL program connects survey-based problem solving with hands-on design-build work. Hosted with the Faculty of Architecture at the National University of Laos and led by I

A canal can look quiet from the road, yet hold centuries of movement, memory, worship, and daily work. That is what makes the Nonthaburi Waterfront Living Survey, conducted from September 21 to 26, especially valuable. The survey focused on communities along the Bang Kruai Canal, a waterway that connects the Om Non Canal with the Chao Phraya River. This area is more than a scenic waterfront. It is a living record of old settlement patterns, temple-centered landholding, and th

A strong architecture thesis does more than describe buildings. It reveals how people live, work, adapt, and sustain community through space. That is the power of M1 Igaki Asahi’s award-winning research, 「コーヒー農耕社会における居住空間と生業の相互関係」, which received the 2026 日本建築学会優秀卒業論文賞. The study focuses on coffee-producing regions in Laos, where homes are not simply places of rest. They are tied closely to farming, processing, storage, family care, seasonal labor, and local exchange. By look