Kobayashi Maki Design Workshop (KMDW)

Architect and Doctor of Design, Hiroto Kobayashi is a founding partner of Kobayashi Maki Design Workshop (KMDW), an architectural and urban design firm based in Tokyo. Design proposals include work for cities and communities in Japan, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Palau, and Peru. His research at Keio University is focused on sustainable and ecological rural design for the revitalization of declining communities, which are conducted in collaboration with MIT. Most recently, KMDW and his laboratory at Keio University have been developing a design-build methodology using engineered wood; this approach was inspired and initiated by the Tohoku disaster of 2011. His presentation will include the senior daycare home in Tane in Shiga prefecture in Japan, the ‘veneer house’ projects in Minami-sanriku and Maeami-hama in Japan, and in Manawharry village in Myanmar.