On Friday, October 17th, Prof. Dr. Oya Atalay Franck, shared her insights in a webinar on educating architects, planners, and engineers for a sustainable and circular built environment. The session, part of the ZHAW–Swissnex Staff Mobility Program, reflected on her first weeks in Japan, where she visited universities, research laboratories, architectural sites, and met with peers and industry professionals.

During her travels, Prof. Franck explored how Japanese building culture bridges tradition and innovation — from craftsmanship and material intelligence to digital design and urban regeneration. Her cross-disciplinary perspective, connecting design, technology, material sciences, and social sciences, offered a unique lens on how sustainability can be taught, learned, and practiced across fields. Highlighting the cultural dimension of sustainability, she emphasized that it is not only a technical challenge but also rooted in respect for materials, continuity, and collaboration. As Prof. Dr. Oya Atalay Franck reminds us:

To build sustainably means to work together, to stay curious, and to design with social responsibility and imagination for sufficiency.

In addition to the preliminary reflections shared during the webinar, Prof. Dr. Oya Atalay Franck gathered further perspectives during the second part of her research stay in Japan. Through exchanges with universities, research institutes, and practice-based laboratories, the stay offered valuable insights into how sustainability, circularity, and architectural education are evolving. Drawing on observations across academic, professional, and cultural contexts, the following section highlights the key themes that emerged throughout the stay:

• Reuse and material cycles: The practice-based initiatives across Japan demonstrated a strong potential for advancing circular strategies, offering concrete references for comparison and future scaling.

• Architecture–engineering dialogue: The distinct disciplinary cultures shape clear intellectual territories, while also creating opportunities for more structured and productive transdisciplinary exchange.

• Educational models: The highly specialized “lab cultures” within universities are sustaining deep expertise and long-term research lineages, providing a solid foundation for cross-disciplinary and curricular innovation.

• Design experimentation: The academic and professional environments are engaging in a wide range of experimental approaches — from spatial reuse and carpentry traditions to community-oriented design — reflecting a dynamic culture of inquiry.

• Cultural context: Architectural thinking is closely connected to craftsmanship, material stewardship, and sensitivity to context, contributing valuable perspectives to global debates on sustainability and architectural education.

In each city, Prof. Franck exchanged perspectives with experts working on themes such as reuse and material cycles, architecture–engineering dialogue, educational models, design innovation, and the cultural context of craftsmanship, material stewardship, and sensitivity to place. These exchanges offered valuable perspectives within global sustainability debates, creating opportunities for mutual learning and identifying shared challenges across contexts. The conversations highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration and illustrated how different sectors in Japan integrate tradition, innovation, and environmental awareness into their approach to the built environment.

The sabbatical also laid the groundwork for future cooperation. By connecting academic insight with professional practice, Prof. Franck’s visit reinforced the importance of international collaboration in advancing sustainable building cultures and expanding the dialogue between Swiss and Japanese stakeholders. Facilitated by Swissnex in Japan, these partnerships reflect a growing commitment to working across borders and disciplines to imagine and implement more resilient, circular, and culturally grounded approaches to the built environment.