Azby Brown

AZBY BROWN is a native of New Orleans, and has lived in Japan since 1985. A widely published author and authority on Japanese architecture, design, and environment, his groundbreaking writings on traditional Japanese carpentry, compact housing, and traditional sustainable practices of Japan are recognized as having brought these fields to the awareness of Western designers and the general public. His books include The Very Small Home (2005), Just Enough: Lessons in living green from traditional Japan (2010), and The Genius of Japanese Carpentry (2014). He joined the Faculty of Architecture at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology in 1995. In 2003 he founded the KIT Future Design Institute in Tokyo, focussing on cognitive and cultural issues surrounding the human hand and its use in the creative process, conducting collaborative research with neuroscientists and perceptual psychologists on the neurobiology of the hand and hand-based creativity and communication. His creative work has been widely exhibited at galleries and museums internationally.

Since the start of Fukushima Nuclear Powerplant disaster in March 2011, Azby has been a core member of Safecast, a highly successful global volunteer-based citizen-science organization devoted to developing new technology platforms for crowdsourced environmental monitoring which promote open-source and open data principles. He is Safecast’s lead researcher, and is primary author of the Safecast Report, closely involved with assisting affected communities and analyzing and reporting the issues they face. A sought-after speaker on both Japanese culture and the scientific and social consequences of disaster response, Azby is frequently quoted by major media outlets who seek a credible, critical, and independent voice to counter partisan talking points.