LAB LOGA page on LabLog, a review site (not the lab's official page)
Nakatani Lab
Machine-translated · View original
The past still shapes the present: a lab expanding from architectural history to historical engineering.
AboutAbout the lab
Aiming to be a lab situated in spacetime.
The Nakatani Lab builds on existing research in architectural history to establish and develop a new field called "historical engineering."
Things made in the past keep influencing today's cities, like the kofun burial mounds that make roads curve around them, or the rice paddies of the jori system that have turned into housing developments.
From proposals for preserving and reusing historic buildings, to uncovering settlements that have lasted a thousand years, to translating modern architectural texts, the lab creates an academic space where old and new intermingle.
Key terms
- Historical engineering
- A field that considers how things from different times mix together and how to make use of them. It was established by the Nakatani Lab
- Jori system
- A system in ancient Japan that divided fields and land into grid-like plots
- Thousand-Year Village (sennen-mura)
- A settlement, not widely known by name, where people have continued to live for over a thousand years
NewsLab news
Professor Nakatani was elected in the Architectural Institute of Japan's election of vice president candidates
A master's student won the Grand Prize at the 2025 Architectural Institute of Japan Architectural Design Competition
A book co-authored by Professor Nakatani and others, Kankoku "Katachi" Kiko (A Travelogue of Korean "Forms"), was published by Soshisha
A master's student won the Best Design Award at the Kasoken research presentation meeting
ResearchResearch themes
Building on conventional architectural history research, the lab has established a field called "historical engineering" and studies how things from different times mix together and how they can be put to use. Working in separate lab seminars, it covers everything from proposals for preserving and reusing historic buildings to surveys of long-lived settlements and translation of architectural literature.
*Illustrative imageHistorical Living Environments in East Asia
"Rekiseikan" is short for "historical living environment" (rekishiteki seizon kankyo). Focusing on anonymous settlements that have lasted a long time across East Asia, the lab reads the relationship between survival and environment from their "forms" (katachi).
*Illustrative imageOkinoerabu Meguru Architecture Club
Based on Okinoerabu Island in the Amami Islands, the lab uncovers architectural wisdom, materials, and living techniques buried in the region. This is a hands-on lab seminar in which students work with local high school students and residents on surveying, collecting, prototyping, and building.
*Illustrative imageKaichikugaku (Unbuilding Studies)
Humans have built their environments by unraveling soil, stone, wood, cement, and iron from the earth. The lab considers, from the side of "unraveling," how existing artifacts and human creativity can work together.
*Illustrative imageThousand-Year Villages Research
This is a project to find and evaluate anonymous settlements that have continued for over a thousand years. The lab seeks to uncover their secrets through the overlap of four elements: environment, settlement structure, community management, and transportation.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Nakatani Lab consist of faculty, assistants, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorNorihito Nakatani
VoicesStudent voices
Ratings and reviews reflect the experiences of individual current or former students, not the lab's official views. Whether a lab has reviews, or how many, says nothing about the lab itself.
Students who take part in an interview may receive a thank-you gift worth ¥1,000, regardless of what they say.
Student ratings (0 students)
--
--
--
--
--
--
Student voices answer questions like these
- What's great about this lab?
- What did you learn after joining?
- What's the vibe, and what is the professor like?
- Who is this lab for?
- Where do graduates go?
Your experience can help younger students choose their lab. Your name won't be shown.
Write a lab reviewAnonymous · Your draft is saved if you stopRelatedLabs similar to Nakatani Lab
Koiwa LabSchool of Creative Science and Engineering, Department of ArchitectureArchitectural history and cultural heritage studies
Yamada LabSchool of Creative Science and Engineering, Department of ArchitectureBuilding production, building construction methods, material…
Watanabe LabSchool of Creative Science and Engineering, Department of ArchitectureDesign, architectural design, and urban history
Miyamoto LabSchool of Creative Science and Engineering, Department of ArchitectureDesign, architectural design, and landscape theoryThe information on this page is compiled by the LabLog team from the lab's public information and interviews. For corrections or removal requests, please contact LabLog, not the lab.
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: “Takasaki Monomizuka ancient tomb” スーパーソーダ / CC0 (cropped)
- Historical Living Environments in East Asia: “20240906 Traditional Residences in Gongzhai Village 01” Windmemories / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Okinoerabu Meguru Architecture Club: “Amami okinoerabu” Paipateroma / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Kaichikugaku (Unbuilding Studies): “Ancient stone quarry on Bornholm” Socket0 / CC0 (cropped)
- Thousand-Year Villages Research: “Tsuchibuchi Yamaguchi settlement 06” Indiana jo / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Koiwa Lab): “Kyoto Ginkaku-ji Blick auf Togu-do 1” Zairon / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Yamada Lab): “Aa rammed earth alhambra walls 2016 utsnitt” Øyvind Holmstad / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Watanabe Lab): “Mangrove roots in the Laguna de La Restinga” Wilfredor / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Miyamoto Lab): “Government Center Study models ( )” City of Boston Archives from West Roxbury, United States / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
About LabLog
LabLog is a lab review app for students only. Student members at each university interview students in labs and publish what they say. Student voices can only be read by students who sign up with a university email address. Operated by bestiee Inc.
Learn more about LabLog ↗Search engines and AI may reference the basic lab info and rating summaries on this page and the description of LabLog. Student voices are for student members only. Automated collection by programs (scraping, or input to or training of AI) is prohibited under Article 8 of the Terms of Service. If you need data for research or analysis, please contact us.