Call for Participants TOKYO VERNACULAR 2026

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 technology, popular culture, religion, commerce, memory, and everyday life intersect. Through field surveys, mapping, interviews, and collaborative design exercises, participants will investigate how vernacular urban cultures emerge, transform, and coexist within one of the world's most dynamic metropolitan environments.

Students will engage directly with local communities and urban spaces, examining themes such as:

• Vernacular urbanism and everyday architecture

• Otaku culture and subcultural landscapes

• Maid cafés and performative urban spaces

• Kanda and Manseibashi historical districts

• Memory, identity, and place-making in contemporary Tokyo

• Ethnographic methods for architectural research

Participants will work in international teams alongside students and faculty members from partner universities in Thailand and Japan. The program combines lectures, fieldwork, collaborative analysis, and final presentations.

Date:1st-10th September, 2026

Venue:Akihabara, Kanda, Jimbocho and surrounding districts, Tokyo, Japan

We look forward to welcoming students who are interested in architecture, anthropology, urban culture, and field-based research.