Delivered a guest lecture for undergraduate students at the University of Tokyo Komaba campus as part of their elective course on AI and Intimacy. I introduced Henri Lefebvre’s theory of production of space and showed how it can be applied to digital platforms, where interactions often spill over into or even reshape physical space. Using examples such as Minecraft as a spatialized digital practice, LINE as a platform for negotiating closeness and distance, and Strava as a fitness app where digital traces affect physical routines, we discussed how intimacy and social relations are constantly mediated across both realms.

Participated in the fifth Roundtable organized by the Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law & Policy and the Stanford Cyber Policy Center’s Program on the Governance of Emerging Technologies, held at the University of Tokyo’s Fukutake Hall. The session brought together researchers and practitioners to discuss decentralized acceleration (d/acc), Solarpunk visions of sustainable futures, and regenerative design as frameworks for engaging with emerging technologies.

Presented as part of the Cross-Cultural Approaches to Desirable AI seminar series, co-hosted by the B’AI Global Forum in collaboration with the University of Bonn, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Europe for Applied Sciences.

My talk explored how the embodied self is being reshaped in the age of generative AI, particularly within architecture and design. I examined how creative processes are mediated by tools, technologies, and spatial environments, and how generative AI complicates notions of authorship, authenticity, and human agency. The presentation also reflected on how architects’ engagement with digital and AI-driven methods reconfigures symbolic and psychological dimensions of selfhood in creative practice.

This talk was part of the seminar series that received the AI ELSI Award (Perspective Division) from the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence (JSAI) in May 2025, under the title Dialogue for Desirable AI.

▶︎ The videos from the lecture series are available via the link on the page.

Presented at the 2024 UTokyo–SNU–NCCU Joint Symposium. My talk examined how architects are beginning to integrate generative AI into their conceptual design stages and what this means for architectural creativity.

I contrasted traditional design processes—site analysis, client needs, aesthetic vision—with emerging practices using AI tools such as Midjourney. The presentation highlighted both possibilities and limitations: novel prompts and unexpected outcomes on one hand, and concerns over practicality, bias, authorship, and homogenization on the other.

Drawing on interviews, online content analysis, and competition examples, I raised questions about whether AI-assisted conceptual design might emerge as a distinct “genre” within architectural practice, and how this could reshape the relationship between architects, clients, and tools.

Presented at the joint Summer Research Workshop between B'AI Global Forum and laboratory of Prof. Hiromi Yokoyama. My talk examined the intersection of gender, identity, and automation in the architectural profession in Japan. Drawing on labor statistics, surveys, and case studies, I highlighted structural barriers facing women architects—ranging from childcare and workplace discrimination to the lack of female role models—and how these challenges shape professional identity.

The presentation further considered how generative AI and automation may intensify existing inequalities, with women disproportionately at risk as routine and background tasks in architecture become automated. Situating this within broader debates on gender, labor, and design, I asked what it means for architecture’s future when creative authority and technological mediation remain unevenly distributed.

Participated in the second Roundtable in Tokyo, convened by the Stanford Cyber Policy Center’s Program on the Governance of Emerging Technologies and hosted at Keio University. The session gathered invited scholars, practitioners, and policymakers from Japan and the U.S. to discuss the impact of emerging technologies on the rule of law, democracy, and socioeconomic inequality. I contributed perspectives from my doctoral research on technology, society, and public space.

Published in Social & Cultural Geography (Vol. 25, Issue 8, 2024). I reviewed Artificial Intelligence and the City: Urbanistic Perspectives on AI (Routledge, 2023), a collaborative volume by Federico Cugurullo, Federico Caprotti, Matthew Cook, Andrew Karvonen, Pauline McGuirk, and Simon Marvin.

The review critically reflects on how the book situates AI within urban studies, examining both its conceptual contributions and its implications for cities, governance, and everyday life.

As part of the B’AI Global Forum’s educational engagement, together with Prof. Yuko Itatsu and other colleagues, I gave two talks to high school students in 2023, connecting my expertise in architecture and design with questions of AI and society. My presentations highlighted how AI and machine learning are beginning to influence the design process, raising possibilities for more inclusive and democratic approaches to space-making, while also pointing to the ethical dilemmas of automation in creative fields.

• August 4, 2023 – Fukuoka Prefectural Chikushigaoka High School
  Lecture hosted at the University of Tokyo Asano Campus, Science Building 3.

• September 30, 2023 – Sapporo Daiichi High School
  Lecture hosted at the University of Tokyo Hongo campus, Engineering Building 2.

These sessions encouraged students to think critically about AI’s potential, its risks of bias and exclusion, and their own role in shaping a more just and human-centered technological future.

Presented a paper and poster on the Projectile Acoustic Fiber Forest (PAFF) Pavilion at the 3rd ETH Zürich–UTokyo Strategic Partnership Symposium on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Innovation (January 2019). Together with colleagues from Obuchi Lab, I introduced our experimental pavilion, which explored digital fabrication, sound perception, and collaborative construction methods.

Co-presented a collaborative paper with Shohei Furuichi (Sato Lab, Department of Architecture) at the Advances in Architectural Geometry (AAG) Conference, held at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden (2018). The work was a joint effort between Obuchi Lab and Sato Lab, exploring the application of non-linear logic in the design and construction of a self-stabilizing hammock structure.

Full paper available in the conference proceedings (p.364)