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DANIELL
LABORATORY

Laboratory for Architectural History, 
Theory, and Criticism



Department of Architecture and Architectural Engineering
Graduate School of Engineering
Kyoto University

ABOUT THE LAB

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Thomas Daniell Laboratory is focused on history, theory and criticism in Japanese architecture. Based on close readings of texts, images, and buildings, our research is intended to produce a theoretical understanding and critical positioning with regard to developments in contemporary Japanese architecture, placing it within a wider context of art, culture, politics, and economics. Student output comprises both critical writing and experimental design.

7 YEARS OF ACTIVITY

15 COUNTRIES​

UPCOMING EVENT

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01/28/2026

Lecture by Raffaele Pernice

Metabolism and Metabolists Then and Now: Envisioning New Urban Architectures for a Changing Japan

Kyoto University Katsura Campus, C2-413,

28 January 2026, 6:00 PM–7:30 PM JST

The Japanese avant-garde architectural movement of Metabolism emerged in the 1960s led by a new generation of architects and designers who were looking at the future of the city in a period of fundamental paradigms shifts and new challenges for Japanese cities. The key features of the new urbanism proposed by Metabolists reveal a persistent links between present and past with the scope of re-imagining new urban futures for Japan as well as proposing the design of innovative intra-urban relationships and spaces in an urban environment in tumultuous transformation. The lecture introduces holistic reflections on the present relevance of the urban proposals of the Metabolists and critically reconsiders their investigation of the various aspects of urban futures (in terms of form, economic structure, society, and cultural meaning) in the larger context of the historical studies of the city and the current evolution of city planning and urban design theories.

EVENTS AND NEWS

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January 13-23, 2026

Exhibition: Close Encounters 2 ― A Stadium for the Outback and A Temporary Gazebo for a Shrine made with Bamboo and Membrane

Katsura Library 1st floor reading room

In the Department of Architecture and Architectural Engineering, we offer a class called "Architecture Design Studio II" in the second semester. Every year, we invite guests from Japan and abroad and work on small projects that can be completed in about a month. For the first project in 2025, we invited Mr. James Park from Australia and Mr. Shun Takayama from Japan as guests to think about the local context and sports activity of Yulara, Australia. For the second project, we surveyed the grounds of an actual shrine in Kyoto City and designed a temporary gazebo for visitors to relax in using the light and soft materials of bamboo and membrane. All students taking the course this year are international students. We hope you will take a look at their analysis of Yulara and Kyoto, as well as the models of the proposed architecture.

DESIGN AND RESEARCH

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2021

PARIS PAVILLION

Design and construction of a temporary wooden pavilion next to the River Seine in Paris. This studio was a collaboration with Osaka Sangyo University, Osaka Institute of Technology, and ESA (École Special d’Architecture), Paris.