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Urban Design Lab
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A lab that visits disaster-affected areas and envisions the future of cities and settlements.
AboutAbout the lab
Learning on site, moving between theory and practice.
The Urban Design Lab studies methodologies for understanding on-site realities in order to envision how regions should be.
Visiting disaster-affected areas, the lab repeats surveys and proposals while learning from the people who live there, the landscapes, and the relationships among people.
It aims for design in which spatial intervention brings about emergence, and for design that values the "roots" that support the existence of people and things.
The lab was established in 1995, and Prof. Kubota has led it since fiscal 2023.
Key terms
- Emergence
- The appearance of new movements or forms as a whole, as individual actions accumulate
- Evacuation order
- An administrative instruction that designates an area and asks residents to evacuate during a disaster or nuclear accident
- Biotope
- A place with ponds, grassland, and similar features prepared so that wild living things can live there
NewsLab news
Paper published in the journal Space and Culture
Student wins the Architectural Institute of Japan Outstanding Graduation Thesis Award
Paper published in the Journal of Architecture and Planning of the Architectural Institute of Japan
Paper by Prof. Kubota and colleagues wins the Jusoken Research and Practice Award
Paper on the Odaka Town local history archive room published
ResearchResearch themes
To envision cities and settlements different from those of today, the lab studies methodologies for understanding on-site realities. It conducts surveys and analyses in disaster-affected areas and returns the insights gained to the field as planning and design proposals.
*Illustrative imagePractice in Odaka District, Minamisoma
In Odaka District, Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, where evacuation orders were issued for the entire area after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear accident, the lab is converting a closed kindergarten into an exhibition room that conveys local history and restoring devastated farmland as a biotope.
*Illustrative imageDisaster survey in Shiromaru, Noto Town
The Shiromaru district of Noto Town, Ishikawa Prefecture, suffered compound damage from earthquake, tsunami, and fire in the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. The lab investigates daily life before the disaster, the state of the damage, and how recovery and rebuilding have progressed.
*Illustrative imageUsing vacant land in Futaba Town
In Futaba Town, where the evacuation order was lifted latest among the 12 municipalities of Fukushima, the lab studies the state of reconstruction and, from fiscal 2025, is working on a project to make use of vacant land in the area east of Futaba Station.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Urban Design Lab are faculty, administrative assistants, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and research students.As of 2026
- ProfessorAya Kubota
- Assistant (Joshu)Keita Ueda
VoicesStudent voices
Compiled from answers by students who were in the lab. Ratings and reviews reflect individual students' experiences, not the lab's official views.
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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: “Ushitsu town aerial shot” ブルーノ・
プラス / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped) - Practice in Odaka District, Minamisoma: “Satoyama landscape near Hida, Gifu” Seth Vidal / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Disaster survey in Shiromaru, Noto Town: “The Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture; September 2019 (02)” 雷太 / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Using vacant land in Futaba Town: “Futaba Town Youth and Women's Hall” Benlisquare / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (IT Communication Design Lab): “Central Library, Indianapolis Public Library, The Learning Curve” MSwierenga / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Welfare Architecture Lab): “Classroom” strngwrldfrwl from Japan / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Regional Planning and Spatial Design Strategy Lab): “Architecture Site Masterplan Miniature Scale Model” iKix 3D Prints / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Urban Management Lab): “Sendai city - Hirose river 2005” Kinori / Public domain (cropped)
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