Nozomi Nakabayashi centers her practice around a simple belief:
“The role of design is to connect people’s everyday lives with nature.”
Growing up in a home constructed of timber and earth fostered her seminal connection with natural building materials. Nozomi set up her own practice in the U.K. in 2013, following her studies leading to her Master of Architecture degree from Architectural Association School of Architecture. She was a core member of the design and construction team of "Big Shed", an experimental timber-built assembly workshop at Architectural Association’s woodland campus, Hooke Park, in the UK. Currently, based in Japan and the U.K., her practice centers around the intersection of architecture/landscape design + ecology restoration.
She has a 16 years of professional experience in public architecture and landscape/public realm design, having worked at Erect Architecture in London, Kendall Heaton Associates in U.S.A and SANAA in Japan. She was a visiting lecturer in architecture at UAL Central St Martins College of Art Spacital Practice Programme in London.
Her current collaborators include: Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in London U.K. and Takada Zouen Sekkei Jimusho + Organic Civil Engineering Association in Japan.
Nozomi’s design approach is both research-oriented and hands-on. She believes that solutions emerge from a direct engagement with materials and nature.
“Life is about learning and playing” is central to her pursuits which connect hands, mind and nature. Beyond architecrure and landscape design, her ongoing practices include playing and making the oud, playing the daf, Kung Fu and Qi Gong, and understanding soil ecology.
PRESS/PUBLICATIONS/AWARDS/WORKSHOPS/RESEARCH
2025 Modern Tree Houses, Taschen, Germany.
2024 “Ways of Improving Soil Ecology Workshop” at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in London, UK.
2023 Participation in Lime and Clay Plaster Workshop for a strawbale-built school learning space from School of Natural Building in London UK.
2023 Participation in Clay Plaster Workshop for a strawbale-built assembly space at Building Baladi in Lebanon.
2023 Research of vernacular natural building and construction methods of houses in Labanon (Learning from an ethnologist, photographer and the leading researcher on vernacular building typology Houda Kassatly).
2023 Research of the effect of cemement led infrastructural system on water resources and agriculture in Duhok, Kurdistan Iraq.
2022 Workshop participation in Japanese lime and clay plaster at Pamimomi Okayama, Japan.
2018 The Anatomy of Treehouses: Stylish Hideaways and Retreats by Jane Field-Lewis, Gibbs Smith, USA.
2017 Le liège dans l'architecture, le design, la mode et l'art, BOU-GE, France.
2017 Reclaimed Living, Prestel
2016 Communal Knowledge at Work, The Showroom, London, U.K.
2016 The Hinterland, Gestalten, Germany.
2016 AJ Small Projects Award - Shortlist, U.K.
2015 Backyard Boltholes, Wallpaper Magazine, U.S.A.
2015 My Hole and Corner, Hole&Corner, U.K.
2015 AA Conversations, Architectural Association School of Architecture, U.K.
2014 The Bio Base Seminar, MakingLewes, U.K.
STUDIES
Lifetime Student of Music, Movement, Nature and Design - EARTH
Master of Architecture - Architectural Association School of Architecture (Design & Make program) - U.K. 2012
Bachelor of Architecture - Rice University Rice School of Architecture - U.S.A. 2006