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Imoto Lab
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A lab that approaches recovery, slums, and children's facilities through fieldwork.
AboutAbout the lab
Visiting the field to think about communities and architecture
The Imoto Lab conducts research and practice around three major themes: recovery from disasters, living environments in impoverished areas such as slums, and children's facilities that benefit their communities.
Through fieldwork such as interviews and measured surveys, the lab seeks to understand communities and considers the roles architecture can play within them, as well as the methods for fulfilling those roles.
The lab website introduces activities including visits to disaster-affected areas and to architecture and community development sites, lab seminar retreats, self-build construction in places such as Kenya, and participation in design competitions.
This is the lab of Associate Professor Imoto, who moved from Japan Women's University to the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences. The website is shared with the Imoto Lab at Japan Women's University.
Key terms
- Fieldwork
- A research method in which researchers go to the site and investigate through observation, interviews, and measured surveys
- Pre-disaster recovery planning
- Preparing before a disaster occurs by considering how recovery will proceed and what the community should look like afterward
- Self-build
- Constructing a building with the hands of the residents and community members themselves, rather than leaving it to professional contractors
ResearchResearch themes
The lab conducts research and practice around three major themes: recovery from natural and human-caused disasters, living environments in impoverished areas such as slums, and the planning of children's facilities. Through fieldwork, it seeks to understand communities and explores the possible roles of architecture and the methods for fulfilling them.
*Illustrative imagePost-Disaster Reconstruction Design
In areas affected by natural disasters in Japan and abroad, the lab studies how residents decide to rebuild their homes, evaluates recovery plans, and investigates pre-disaster recovery planning to prepare for future disasters.
*Illustrative imageSustainable Housing in Impoverished Areas
In slums and refugee camps around the world, the lab conducts surveys aimed at creating sustainable living environments, and puts the findings into practice through on-site workshops and self-build projects.
*Illustrative imagePlanning Children's Facilities That Serve the Community
The lab conducts research and practice on how architecture centered on children's facilities can take on a role within the community.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Imoto Lab are faculty and undergraduate students from the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Engineering.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorSaori ImotoPublications ↗
VoicesStudent voices
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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: “Kamaishi-20120901-temporary housing” Aude / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Post-Disaster Reconstruction Design: “Temporary housings for tsunami evacuees in Shichigahama” Daisuke TSUDA / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Sustainable Housing in Impoverished Areas: “Kibera aerial view western part” Kreuzschnabel / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Planning Children's Facilities That Serve the Community: “Dülmen, Heilig-Kreuz-Kindergarten” Dietmar Rabich / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Okabe Lab): “Kawasaki Nihon Minkaen-3” Fg2 / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Kawazoe Lab): “Taketa townscape ac (4)” Asturio Cantabrio / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Maruyama Lab): “Beton angeschliffen Nahaufnahme 1” Ralf Saalmueller / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Akashi Lab): “Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building P5228787” Kestrel / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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