Kyoto, Japan: Landscape and Urban Design

Summary

*** Info Session: Tuesday, January 28, 5-6 p.m. Register here ***

Summer Abroad in Kyoto, Japan: Landscape and Urban Design

The Kyoto Program is a 6 week landscape architecture and urban design intensive in which students live and work in Myoshinji, an active zen monastery. Students will spend 6 weeks exploring traditional design concepts and practice, and apply what they learn in a specific, contemporary, spatial design project with the Department of Urban Planning in the City of Kyoto. How do traditional modalities approach environmental sustainability? How is design informed by and impact social and political issues? How do traditional practices such as “the way of tea,” cha no yu (茶の湯); the aesthetic of “wabi sabi,” (侘寂); and the philosophy of “one meeting, one opportunity,” ichigoichie (一期一会); take space and shape in the modern city?  To grapple with these questions, students will gain exclusive access to gardens around Kyoto and surrounding areas, and be introduced to practices including tea (茶), seated meditation (座禅), calligraphy (書道), and stewardship of satoyama (里山). As the culmination of the program, students will present their design proposals to the city and neighborhood residents.

Highlights include:

• Growing your skills in painting and rendering: study exclusive gardens around Kyoto and surrounding areas in watercolor 
• Applied design & project management: conduct an urban and landscape design project for the city of Kyoto
• Dive deep into traditional culture: through tea ceremonies, zen buddhist philosophy, and living at an active zen monastery
• Day trips to the beautiful areas surrounding Kyoto including but not limited to Nara, Koyasan Gardens, and more!

Dates:

Program dates: June 29 - August 2, 2025

All dates are subject to change.

Courses:

In this program you will be enrolled in two courses for a total of 6 units:

• Landscape Architecture 140: Social and Psychological Factors in Open Space Design (Design Practice Course, Integrity)
  (3 units) + 
• Landscape Architecture 135: Sacred Landscapes (Media Course, The Dream World)

Total Units: 6

Language of Instruction: English

Requirements Satisfied through this Program:

• International Studies L&S Breadth
• Additional L&S Breadths Pending Approval
• Consult with your college/major advisor to see which additional degree requirements this course may fulfill.

Note: Requirements above must be satisfied through full participation (all courses must be completed with C-/P or better)

Eligibility:

• At least one year of college coursework completed by the start of the program
• 2.0 GPA or higher
• Must be 18+ years old at the time of application
• May not be on academic probation or under censure for student misconduct at any point from application review to the end of your program.

Housing & Classroom:

• Students will be provided housing as part of the program for the duration of the program dates. Students will be living in Myoshinji, an active Zen Monestary which will also be the site of the classroom. Please note the following details of the living arrangement and classroom due to the requirements of the site:
  • Students should expect general 10pm curfew for the temple. Arrangements can be made for students late return or visiting friends, relatives etc.  Festival nights generally have a late-night curfew later than usual.
  •  Temple walls are made of paper, students should expect to be conscientious of others needs and generally empathetic about noise after hours, especially during week nights.  
  • much of the in-class work requires sitting on tatami mat floors and working on low tables.
• Students will be living in shared rooms of two or three students per room with shared, gendered, bathrooms. Please note that, due to in-country policies, students will be paired with roommates based on the gender listed on their passports. If you have clarifying questions, please feel free to reach out to the program staff at summerabroad@berkeley.edu. 
   

Food:

• Most Meals are generally on your own. There is a space in the temple in which students cook their own meals and there are many reasonably priced restaurants in the immediate temple neighborhood. During group travel, a series of meals will be provided. In the first week of the program, program staff will take the students on a walking tour to explore affordable restaurant and market options.

Application:

• Application opens February 5, 2025
• Space is limited and applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, so apply early!
• Deadline to apply is March 12, 2025

Courses

During the program, you will be automatically enrolled to take two courses for a total of six UC Berkeley units.

• Landscape Architecture 140: Social and Psychological Factors in Open Space Design (Design Practice Course, Integrity)
  (3 units) + 
• Landscape Architecture 135: Sacred Landscapes (Media Course, The Dream World)

Course: Landscape Architecture 140

Title: 正直 Integrity: Design Practice in Context

Instructor: Alan Waxman, Daisuke Yoshimura

Units: 3 units

Description: “Integrity,” shoujiki (正直), refers to a relationship of functional parts as they come together as a singular form.  Students will be involved in the craft of landscape architecture in an applied, social context.  This is a collaborative effort; students will work on a real landscape and urban design project for the city of Kyoto. The class meets between 2-6pm, 5 days a week in workshops.  Students will work in small groups before the midterm, in which they will conduct site research, drawing on site, observation, and tea ceremony to produce a set of drawings and sketches regarding small concrete, measurable items in their site (20% of grade); analyze collected data in collaboration with site residents (20% of grade); and learn landscape construction techniques (20% of grade). For the final exam, students will work as teams to develop a site proposal to address a specific problem and present their solution to the city (40% of grade).

Course: Landscape Architecture 135

Title: 夢の世 The Dream World: Media and Narrative in Sacred Landscapes

Instructor: Alan Waxman, Satoko Motouji, Daisuke Yoshimura

Units: 3 units

Description: The line between illusion, kuusou (空想), and reality, genjitsu (現実), is a constant topic in Japanese landscape architecture; often discussed in terms of dreams, yume (夢) in Buddhist and Japanese philosophy.  Watercolor painting is one medium to “arrive,” nyorai (如来), in place, unifying perception and material embodiment in personal experience. Students in this course will visit significant gardens in the Kyoto area and spend time in the home temple of Myoshinji while being introduced to a corpus of Japanese visual literature.  Students will learn to visually recognize elements of “broken down” wabi (侘) “loneliness” sabi (寂), the sense of the passage of the seasons, mono no aware (物の哀れ); open heartedness, mushin (無心); and the confrontation with the void of eternal change, mujo (無常).  Site visit participation (40% of grade) occurs 8am-12pm roughly four days per week.   The midterm exam (30%) is a shared critique of student produced watercolor paintings.  For the final, students will collaborate in teams to do large watercolor drawings (30% of grade). 
 

Requirements Satisfied through this Program:

• International Studies L&S Breadth
• Additional L&S Breadth Requirements Pending
• Consult with your college/major advisor to see which additional degree requirements this course may fulfill.

Note: Requirements above must be satisfied through full participation (all courses must be completed with C-/P or better)

Course Enrollment:

Summer Abroad staff will enroll you in courses after your acceptance to the program. Please make sure there are no active blocks on your student account that may impact your course enrollment.

Costs

The fees to participate in this program are broken down into 1) tuition and 2) program fees, which are applied to your student billing account as follows:

Fees are subject to change. All non-Berkeley students must pay an additional Document Management Fee of $71.

Estimated Out-Of-Pocket Expenses

In addition to the fees outlined above, Berkeley Study Abroad has estimated amounts for out-of-pocket expenses. These amounts are used to calculate financial aid packages for eligible students. Actual expenses will vary depending on your lifestyle and spending habits.

It is your responsibility to obtain any necessary travel documentation for your program destination (i.e. passport, visa, etc). This may require you to pay fees of up to a few hundred dollars depending on the type of paperwork required.

Financial Aid

Financial aid is available for Berkeley students who are enrolled in at least 6 units during the summer.  Students can request a financial aid package estimate to understand what their individual financial aid package will look like. We recommend all financial aid eligible students request a financial aid estimate.

​​Requesting a financial aid package estimate: If you wish to receive a financial aid package estimate, please fill out this form (CalNet Authentication required). You will receive an email with your financial aid estimate (please allow a minimum of one week for response).

If you have a specific question about a study abroad financial aid issue you are encountering, please email TravelAid@berkeley.edu. Please do not email to request a financial aid estimate, these requests should be made using the form above. 

All other students should contact the financial aid office at their home institution for more information.

Explanation of Fees

Tuition is based on a per unit cost:

• The UC undergraduate student rate is $419 per unit
• The visiting student rate for all non-UC participants is $615 per unit

The program fee includes the following items:

• Student housing in Japan (see summary tab for more details)
• Excursions including entry fees to local museums, historic sites, etc.
• On-site orientation activities, excursions, guest speakers, etc.
• Travel insurance, including accident/sickness medical coverage, emergency medical evacuation, security extraction, and other travel assistance services
• Other program-related costs
• The $300 deposit. If accepted to the program, the $300 deposit will be applied towards your program fee. If you are waitlisted or denied admission to the program, your deposit will be refunded. If you request to withdraw your application prior to an admission decision being issued, or cancel your participation after being accepted to the program, the deposit remains charged to your account. 

*Please note that the list of items included in the program fee is not all-inclusive and is subject to change.

The following items are excluded from the program fee and included in the Out of Pocket expenses estimate:

• International airfare
• Personal expenses (souvenirs, routine medical expenses, toiletries, etc.)
• Course materials (textbooks and readers) if applicable. You can contact the instructor of the course to clarify.
• Other travel expenses (passport, visa, etc.)
• Additional meals

Timeline

* The pre-departure orientation is mandatory and takes place on the UC Berkeley campus. If you are not on campus during this time, we will schedule a meeting via phone or Zoom.

† Students are expected to check into program housing in Kyoto, Japan on June 29, 2025, and are expected to check out of program housing on August 2, 2025. Students who arrive in-country early or depart after the last day may do so, but they are responsible for arranging their own accommodations outside of the program dates.

All dates are subject to change.

Instructors

Program Director: Alan Waxman

Email: alan.e.waxman@berkeley.edu

Alan Waxma (PhD UCBerkeley 2025, MLA Harvard GSD 2014) creates landscape architecture and urban design for health equity and cultural resilience. His agency AWED has designed, built projects, and conducted studios to reduce violence and chronic disease with Columbia University, the Center For Court Innovation, Storefront For Art and Architecture, the University of Oregon in Kyoto, Sogorea Te Land Trust, Pinoleville Pomo Nation, Tolowa Nation, The Melting Pot Culinary Academy, PEW research, the Mark Morris Dance Group, and conducted mindfulness room design programs with various youth centers. Waxman has worked for QRP (in the NYC Parks), Sorkin Studio, and SWA – on projects in New York City, Hangzhou, Xi’An, and Chengdu – and his landscape renderings have appeared in the Architects Newspaper, ASLA the Dirt, Landscape Architecture Magazine, and New York Magazine. His project with Nikola Bojic, the Sinking Gardens of Hangzhou, features in Susan Herrington’s Landscape Theory in Design. He writes on civic space, chronic violence, psychosocial design, Zen, and decolonial landscape architecture.

Local Director: Daisuke Yoshimura

Daisuke Yoshimura is an adjunct professor of landscape architecture at Kyoto University of the Arts, as well as a practicing landscape architect and urban designer in the USA and Japan.  His firm Yoshimura Design Inc has operated since 2000, prior to which he worked for Design Workshop in Aspen CO, and Yoshimura Masonry Inc, in Kyoto Japan. He has a BLA from UO and a BS in Civil Engineering from Kinki University, Osaka. He has taught with the University of Oregon; helping to lead the Kyoto Program for close to thirty years; doing collaborative projects including the Horikawa Canal, built, and numerous community projects. His landscape work includes the Sophia University Campus Plan; Kyoto Station South District; Fukushima Kokoro Medical Center; Downtown Redevelopment Plan; Glenwood Springs, CO; Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo; Mito City Hall; Kansai University Campus, Osaka; and many others.  He is a registered landscape architect in Colorado. 

Media Instructor: Satoko Motouji

Website: https://satokomotouji.com/

Satoko Motouji was born in Kyoto, Japan, and educated both in Japan and the United States. She moved to the US in 1980, and currently is living and working in Eugene, Oregon. She works with watercolor, Japanese calligraphy ink, oil, and other media. In addition to teaching at Lane Community College for 30 years, she has extensive experience in teaching overseas programs. In 1996 she created the Siena Art Summer Program through the University of Oregon and was active as a director and instructor until 2005. From 2006 to 2016 she was invited to teach in the Kyoto Study Abroad Summer Program, offered by the University of Oregon. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, Japan, and Italy.