Nozomi Nakabayashi’s practice centers on the intersection of architecture, landscape design and ecology—based around a simple belief that, the role of design is to connect people’s everyday lives with nature.
Nozomi set up her own design practice in the U.K. in 2013, after completing her Master of Architecture degree from the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture.
She was a core member of the design and construction team of "Big Shed", a 500m2 timber-built assembly workshop at the AA’s woodland campus, Hooke Park, in Dorset, U.K.
She has 16 years of professional experience in public architecture and landscape/public realm design, having worked at Root And Erect (formerly Erect Architecture) in London, Kendall Heaton Associates in the U.S.A and SANAA in Japan. She was a visiting lecturer in architecture at UAL Central Saint Martins College of Art, Spatial Practice Programme in London.
Her most recent collaborators include Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in London, U.K. and the Organic Civil Engineering Association in Japan.
Nozomi’s design approach is both research-oriented and hands-on. She believes that solutions emerge from and with people and the natural environment.
Life is about learning and playing — Beyond architecture and landscape design, her ongoing practices include (sound) playing and making the oud, (rhythm) playing the daf, (movements) Kung Fu and Qi Gong.
EDUCATION
Master of Architecture — 2012
Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture (Design & Make program) U.K.
Bachelor of Architecture — 2006
Rice University, Rice School of Architecture U.S.A.
Lifetime Student of Music, Movement, Nature and Design
AWARD
2016 AJ Small Projects Award - Shortlist, U.K.
PUBLICATIONS
(Project featured in below publications)
Modern Tree Houses. Taschen, 2025.
The Anatomy of Treehouses: Stylish Hideaways and Retreats. Gibbs Smith, 2018.
Le liège dans l'architecture, le design, la mode et l'art. BOU-GE, 2017.
Reclaimed Living. Prestel, 2017.
The Hinterland. Gestalten, 2016.
Backyard Boltholes. Wallpaper Magazine, 2015.
My Hole and Corner. Hole&Corner, 2015.
AA Conversations. Architectural Association School of Architecture, 2015.
(Translation and Editorial work)
Takada, Hiroomi., and Ogura, Saori. Reviving the Commons in Japan: Restoring the land-human relationship for a climate-resilient future. Organic Civil Envineering, 2025.
(Japanese texts translation assistance)
Reeves, Anya. Spitirs in the Mountains and in Blooksbury: Minakata Kumagusu, Emanuel Swedenborg, and an Ecology of Spirits and the Dead. (2026 Forthcoming Publication)
WORKSHOPS/RESEARCH
2025 (Workshop Participation)
Organic Civil Engineering in Noto and Nasu, JAPAN
2024 (Workshop Leadning)
“Ways of Improving Soil Ecology Workshop” at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, London, UK.
2023 (Workshop Participation)
Lime and Clay Plaster Workshop at Heathland School School of Natural Building in London UK.
2023 (Workshop Participation)
Clay Plaster Workshop for a strawbale-built assembly space at Building Baladi in Zahle, Lebanon.
2023 (Field Research)
Vernacular natural building and construction methods of houses in Labanon (Learning from an ethnologist, photographer and the leading researcher on vernacular building typology of the Levant Houda Kassatly).
2022 (Workshop Participation)
Japanese lime and clay plaster and cowdung plaster at Permaculture Center Kamimomi Okayama, Japan.
2016 (Installation)
Communal Knowledge at Work, The Showroom, London, U.K.
2014 (Presentation)
The Bio Base Seminar, MakingLewes, Lewes, U.K.