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Okabe Lab
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The lab designs cities and regions by thinking from a big-picture perspective and building up small interventions.
AboutAbout the lab
Super-macro vision, super-micro practice.
The Okabe Lab studies how future urban and regional spaces should be, from the standpoint of architecture and community development.
Taking an environmental approach, the lab explores a new way of thinking about spatial environment design that goes beyond the limits of modern planning theory.
In practice, the lab carries out micro-interventions in a thatched-roof house in Tateyama and in a densely built-up area of Jakarta, and seeks to share that experience with Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The lab builds the theory that supports this work around public space.
Key terms
- Micro-intervention
- An approach that improves the environment by making small changes to buildings and places, rather than remaking a city all at once.
- Environmental void
- The lab's idea of inserting narrow gaps between or behind densely packed buildings to let in wind and light.
- Public space
- Places that anyone can use, such as plazas and streets. The lab treats them as places where space and civil society influence each other.
NewsLab news
Thatch-cutting workshop for re-thatching held (call for participants)
First Japanese translation of the book Housing by People published, translated by Prof. Okabe and others
Joins the Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering, starting with the FY2026 graduate school admissions
Thatching workshop held at the thatched-roof house Gonjiro
ResearchResearch themes
Taking an environmental approach, the lab explores a new philosophy of spatial environment design that goes beyond the limits of modern planning theory. In practice, it extends its experience of micro-interventions to Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and builds the theory that supports this work around public space.
*Illustrative imageThatched-Roof House “Gonjiro”
Together with students and local people, the lab continues “interventions” in existing buildings, such as re-thatching the roof, inserting a kitchen into an abandoned house, and restoring the doma (earthen-floor area). In an age of population decline, it shows through practice how to engage with the buildings that already exist.
*Illustrative imageImproving the Environment of Dense Neighborhoods in Jakarta
In an extremely overcrowded slum in central Jakarta, the lab inserted narrow environmental voids between and behind buildings, demonstrated that this improves ventilation and sunlight, and shared the results with residents.
*Illustrative imageResearch on EU Urban Strategy
The lab has clarified how the ideal of the “sustainable city” was in fact pursued strategically so that micro-interventions focused on distressed districts could produce results.
*Illustrative imageUrban History and Public Space in Barcelona
The lab discusses the history of Barcelona through the transformation of its urban space, and from there studies public space theoretically as a place where physical space and civil society influence each other.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Okabe Lab are faculty, and students in the doctoral, master's, and undergraduate programs.As of 2025
- ProfessorAkiko OkabePublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Kawasaki Nihon Minkaen-3” Fg2 / Public domain (cropped)
- Thatched-Roof House “Gonjiro”: “Thatched Roof Re-thatching Work in Awa (Drone) )” 津山市立図書館 Public Library of Tsuyama / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Improving the Environment of Dense Neighborhoods in Jakarta: “Jakarta slum tv” Jonathan McIntosh / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Research on EU Urban Strategy: “RK HafenCity Alster” Reinhard Kraasch / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Urban History and Public Space in Barcelona: “Eixemple detall” Eixample_aire.jpg: Alhzeiia derivative work: Vatekor (talk) / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Kawazoe Lab): “Taketa townscape ac (4)” Asturio Cantabrio / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Imoto Lab): “Kamaishi-20120901-temporary housing” Aude / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Honma Lab): “Komaba Research Campus (Evening) color” Guwashi / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Yasuhara Lab): “Marquise do Ibirapuera 01” Dornicke / Public domain (cropped)
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