Architect Moriko Kira is a professor at Kyushu University, teaching in the BeCAT program, short for Built Environment Center for Advanced Technologies.
BeCAT is a hands-on, innovative architecture program that connects design with environmental responsibility and real-world application. Instead of just drawing ideas in the classroom, students work with companies, develop sustainable construction methods, and turn good ideas into real spaces.
At BeCAT, students learn how to design and build with the full picture in mind, from materials and construction to long-term environmental impact.
They collaborate with major industry players like Daiwa House, a company that recently expanded into Europe. This kind of international cooperation is central to BeCAT’s mission and mirrors Moriko’s own approach.
Moriko’s work is simple, human, and thoughtful. She is quietly changing how we think about architecture, not with loud statements or flashy buildings, but through spaces that bring people together. It’s about community, care, and how we live alongside one another.
To create such living environment is so important for European and Japanese society which lost the traditional coherence of the community.
Architect Moriko Kira, Professor at Kyushu University
BeCAT Kyushu University
Her latest project, Furusato Huis in Amsterdam, reflects that vision. It’s a housing initiative built around the idea of shared living, multicultural and multigenerational.
“To create such living environment is so important for European and Japanese society which lost the traditional coherence of the community,” says Moriko.
Furusato House
The goal is to create a space where people of different ages, backgrounds, and life experiences can live together in a supportive and respectful environment. A place where older adults and young families might share a courtyard, or where people from different cultures cook and eat together in a shared kitchen. Small, intentional design choices like this help foster connection.
Moriko and her team are actively developing Furusato Huis through real partnerships. A key part of the project is collaboration with Japanese healthcare companies.
Bottom up development
These partnerships aim to integrate wellness and care into the heart of community living, not in a clinical, isolated way, but as part of everyday life. Care does not have to mean separation or institutions. It can mean neighbors checking in on one another, shared services, and a space designed with health, accessibility, and dignity in mind.
Support from Japanese healthcare organizations will help bring this vision to life. It’s a rare chance to blend healthcare, architecture, and cultural connection, and she believes the timing is right.
Historic building transformation
Through all of this, teaching future architects, evaluating international exhibitions, designing homes, Moriko Kira stays focused on one thing: human connection. Her work reminds us that architecture isn’t just about walls and roofs. It’s about the people who live inside.
With Furusato Huis, she offers a gentle but powerful idea. We can build homes that care for us at every stage of life, and community is the foundation of a good life. By bringing together healthcare, design, and cultural understanding, she’s showing us a new way forward, one that feels more like home.
+31(0)20 – 423 03 03
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www.morikokira.nl
