Beginning April 1st, I will take on a new position as an Associate Professor-in-Practice at Japan Women’s University (aka JWU).

April Fools joke? … It is happening, and what a prospect it will be.
As I set sail towards this exciting and simultaneously daunting new horizon, I am reminded and grateful for all of the good and even the bad that have brought me to this personal watershed. At the same time, this moment is akin to standing at the precipice, gazing into the unknown. This will be my first time running a laboratory, as the professorship in Japan typically comes with this responsibility, aside from a regular course load. In the coming weeks and months, I will be asking many people for advice and exploring possible collaborations, and vice versa, your advice or calls for collaboration will be welcomed.

The laboratory will be called KazLab. Feeling grateful for the opportunity on one hand, and on the other hand, feeling nervous about the unimaginable possibility of running a laboratory, I am reminded of Jorge Luis Borges’ words:
“… I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all [the people] that I have loved; all the cities that I have visited, all my ancestors… [yet] I am not sure of anything, I know nothing…"
This duality of optimism and Socratic criticality has foreshadowed a kind of unifying theme throughout my practice and studies. I assume I know nothing, and rather than leaving at that, learning and growth process should be an unending lifelong practice.

My objective at the JWU is clear. I am tasked to help the university achieve its goal to create an internationally competitive curriculum that will dually enable sending our students abroad for studies or post-graduation work experience, and accepting students from abroad for varying intervals ranging from short-term workshops to long-term exchanges. But I cannot do that alone, and it will be an institutional reform. Another aspect to this reformation is to expand the global partnerships and alliances with other schools, whether at the departmental level or university wide. As the school looks outward, to establish a position in the global architectural and design education, my laboratory will also engage in domestic research topics and activities. To know about others, we must first know ourselves, and vice versa. While the exactitude of what is to unfold is yet to be designed, I promise to strive to create a laboratory that is inclusive, also in geolocality or disciplinary manner. In other words, I am not interested in creating an archipelagic fiefdom, and would rather link up with other labs or institutions to share resources, information, and activities across boundaries. This is one small step towards an idea of a trans-institutional, trans-national and trans-disciplinary academic platform I envision for one day.

I’d like to thank JWU for giving me this opportunity, and taking the risk in appointing a youngster no-name, to test ideas on the futures of architecture and urbanism. JWU was founded as the first women’s university in Japan more than 120 years ago, in 1901. Ever since, the illustrious alumni includes Masako Hayashi, Rie Azuma, Kazuyo Sejima, Satoko Shinohara (current President), Kazuko Akamatsu, and Momoyo Kaijima to name a very few. Formerly, the architecture program was under the Department of Housing Studies within the Faculty of Home Economics. Starting in 2024, the program will be reconfigured as the Faculty of Architecture and Design. This is a dramatic and much sought restructuring to give the architecture program a rightful recognition within the university for its history of matriculating important architects. I am honored to join this program and contribute in small ways to its diversification and internationalization. B01 will be for practice and KazLab will be for research, together engendering a reciprocal platform that can be mobilized by these two wheels. I look forward to this prospect and challenge.
KazLab is starting!