AIA Japan - Oil and Water: Climate Urbanism in Houston, Texas with Dr. Nataya Friedan

When: Thursday 12 February 2026 @ 04:30 (Eastern US Time)/ 18:30 (Tokyo time)
Where: ONLINE/ In-Person: Lutron Asuka Co., 1 Chome−1−1 Shin-Aoyama Bldg. West 14F, Minamiaoyama, 東京都 107-0062 Japan

CES Credits: Estimated 1 LU/HSW for AIA members

Description

As climate change disasters worsen across the globe, it is clear that evidence does not necessarily lead to action. Instead, misinformation, conspiracy, and outright lies have created new forms of climate denial and mistrust in science, especially in the United States. This lecture uses ethnography to bring the climate conversation out of the abstract and down to the concrete of Houston, Texas. In the fall of 2019, Houston experienced the fifth 500-year flood in five years by the federal risk designations at the time. Despite scientific consensus and data specific to the Gulf Coast, many leaders in local government as well as the business community were calling the storms “just another wet cycle.” Drawing on eighteen months of fieldwork beginning in 2018, this lecture follows civil servants, activists, politicians, and businesspeople as they grappled with climate change evidence in an oil industry town. In the day-to-day process of planning flood infrastructure, climate denial was a refusal to look backward as much as forward.

This lecture argues that the consequential falsehood determining action in Houston was not “climate change isn’t real” but “fuel is cheap.” This claim, whether in Houston or elsewhere, requires persistent denial of past liabilities as much as future climate impacts. This lecture looks at how these assumptions at the individual and political level play out on the ground and in Houston’s urban form.

AIA Japan Book Talk — Waterfront Regeneration in a Time of Climate Change

When: Friday 5 December 2025 @ 04:30 (Eastern US Time)/ 18:30 (Tokyo time)
Where: LUTRON Asuka Showroom/Office, 1 Chome−1−1 Shin-Aoyama Bldg. West 14F, Minamiaoyama, Tokyo 107-0062 Japan/ ONLINE

CES Credits: TBC

Description

Join AIA Japan for an engaging book talk featuring Raffaele Pernice (The University of New South Wales), George Kurumado (Takenaka Corporation), and Heide Imai (Senshu University) — chapter authors of Waterfront Regeneration in a Time of Climate Change: Recent Japanese and International Experiences (Routledge, 2025).

Moderated by Professor Tetsuya Yaguchi (Waseda University), this session will explore the resilience of the Tokyo waterfront and how global cities are reimagining their waterfronts in response to climate change. Through Japanese and international case studies, the speakers will highlight strategies that balance ecological restoration, disaster risk reduction, and urban livability.

AIA Japan - Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan Revisited: Traditional Japanese Culture as a Means to Modern American Architecture

When: Thursday 27 November 2025 @ 04:30 (Eastern US Time)/ 18:30 (Tokyo time)
Where: Arper Showroom, Tokyo/ ONLINE

Speaker

Kevin Nute, Professor of Architecture, University of Hawai’i, Manoa

Description

Although it has long been accepted that America’s most famous architect was influenced by Japanese culture, the nature of Frank Lloyd Wright’s debt to Japan has remained unclear. Kevin Nute argues that Japan had a more profound impact on Wright’s approach to design and in particular his notion of the organic than has previously been acknowledged. It suggests that the influence of Ernest Fenollosa (1853–1908), the leading American authority on Japanese art at the turn of the 20th century, who also happened to be the cousin of Wright’s first employer in Chicago, the Shingle Style architect Joseph Silsbee (1848–1913), was pivotal in bringing together what would become Wright’s twin passions of Japanese art and the organic whole.

AIA Taipei - International Lecture: KINGDOM Development x Department of Architecture Ming Chuan University

When: Thursday 20 November 2025 @ 06:00 (Eastern US time)/ 19:00 (Taipei Time)
Where: Ming Chuan University, Taipei/ ONLINE CES: Estimated 2 LU/HSW for AIA Members

Speaker

Roberto Bannura, Steven Holl Architects I Partner

Event Description

This lecture, presented by Roberto Bannura of Steven Holl Architects, explores the firm’s distinctive design philosophy and its translation into built works across the world. Through an in-depth presentation of selected projects, Bannura will discuss how conceptual thinking, material experimentation, and spatial experience shape Steven Holl’s architectural language.

The event also highlights the collaboration with KINGDOM Development and Ming Chuan University, reflecting the intersection of professional practice, academic exploration, and development innovation in contemporary architecture.

AIA Japan - Evening Lecture with Kengo Kuma: Back to Nature

When: Thursday 6 November 2025 @ 05:00 (Eastern US Time)/ 19:00 (Tokyo time)
Where: TBC near Ikebukuro Station/ ONLINE

Description

AIA Japan is honored to collaborate with Kengo Kuma & Associates to present a special lecture, “Back to Nature,” by Kengo Kuma, one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed architects. The event will take place near Ikebukuro Station at an exclusive, architecturally significant cultural property, offering a fitting setting for this dialogue between architecture and nature. Final venue details will be announced shortly. Kuma-san will reflect on the ways architecture can deepen our connection to nature and the spaces we inhabit.

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