On a sweltering July afternoon near Ubara, a picturesque area of the quiet coastal town of Katsuura, two hours southeast of Tokyo, a group of architecture students from halfway around the world found themselves hunched over models and sketches in the dusty corners of a 19th-century sake brewery.
The air inside was thick with the scent of cedar and rice, and dust motes floated above them between the long timber beams.
They were on the offshore studio component of an international design trip to Japan, run by the University of Tasmania. The trip’s centrepiece was Yoshino Shuzo: a family-run brewery from the 1870s that has weathered earthquakes, typhoons, war, industrialisation, centuries of sea spray, and most severely: time.
Sammy and Nao Yoshino run the brewery now and are the 13th generation of the family to inherit the mammoth task of protecting and maintaining the heritage buildings, while also taking on the complexities of running a modern business.
Japan’s cities are known for their vitality and intensity, striving to erect the most advanced structures to gather more occupants and activity within the same constrained footprint. In Tokyo the urban landscape is one of incessant flux - the average lifespan of a building is just 26 years, which is roughly half the median age of the Japanese population. The true monuments in Japan are its people.
But the brewery is of a different ilk – it has stood the test of time and is an enduring part of the farming and fishing community around Ubara. It’s quietly pushing back against the pressures of modernity, honouring the forebears who built its buildings, grew rice, and brewed sake there.
The architecture students are not here to merely observe, but to put their design minds and skills to the test.
They’ve been tasked with imagining new futures for the site: repurposing two kura, or traditional earthen-walled storehouses, and exploring options for a large, underutilised yet beautiful and atmospheric attic space, and finally proposing a new chapter for the traditional gardens surrounding the site.
The challenge wasn’t just architectural – it was cultural, emotional and deeply contextual.
This offshore studio is run by Professor of Architecture and Head of the School of Architecture and Design, Julian Worrall. He has a special connection to Japanese architecture and the country itself, having spent 15 years studying and working there. He’s an expert in this field, and the best man for the job of opening new hearts and minds to a different way of life and design.
This is the third time the studio has run and Professor Worrall has seen students transformed through the beauty of Japan, the connection to locals through the collaborative design process he oversees, and the camaraderie between classmates.
“With its superlative traditional craftsmanship and dynamic contemporary culture, Japan is an outstanding place to inspire budding architect or designers,” Professor Worrall said.
“More profoundly, contemporary Japan illustrates the dramatic shift from the ‘scrap and build’ growth-oriented idea of modern development that dominated the 20th century, to today’s ‘post-growth’ approach, focused on adapting and sustaining the inheritance of the past to present needs under conditions of declining and aging population.
“In addition, we’ve also seen other benefits of building up this program beyond our teaching offerings – in research, collaboration, and extending the School of Architecture and Design’s international reputation.
“Our academic partners in Japan have started to develop research projects in Tasmania. For example, this year Prof Ryo Abe and his team from Tokyo Art University are conducting comparative research on how rural communities in Tasmania are using tourism and lifestyle migration to sustain their communities and built landscapes. They’re keen to see what lessons they might learn that could be applied to similar places in Japan.
“Students returning from these trips have secured coveted positions with notable local architecture firms. When they hear about the trip, I’ve had the directors of these firms call me to ask if they can come along on the next one,” Professor Worrall said.
The Yoshinos embraced the students not as external consultants but as trusted collaborators. They opened up the site, offered historical insights, and joined in the conversations about heritage, reuse, and identity.
Student Abbey Chorley said “Whilst receiving a tour of the sake brewery, I was in awe of the stunning and culturally rich traditional Japanese buildings that were on the land. The opportunities for the site felt endless and it was a privilege to create a proposal of possibilities for our lovely clients.”
So, with all 12 students putting their heads together, they proposed a bathhouse and short-stay accommodation for the kura spaces; they worked on a transformation of the brewery’s soaring attic space into a visitor dining and community space; and suggested reactivating the gardens using colourful sake crates – a contemporary, playful nod to the brewery’s ongoing story.
When the students presented their proposals - meticulous 1:50 models and detailed drawings - the Yoshinos were visibly moved. Today, those models sit proudly on public display in the brewery’s shopfront, tangible signs of a dialogue across cultures and generations. And inspiration for the next phase of transformation for the brewery.
The two-week trip wasn’t confined to the brewery alone. Before arriving in Katsuura, students toured the architectural icons of Tokyo, visited Expo 2025 in Osaka, and explored contemporary art and architecture scattered across the archipelago of the Inland Sea. They stood before whimsical sculptures on Naoshima, Japan’s ‘Art Island’, navigated the frenetic business of Shibuya, and found quiet in moss-laden temples.
These moments of contrast, and the expert insights provided alongside them, shaped their thinking as much as the studio work did.
To document their adventure, the group has shared their experiences and reflections on The Deep Now www.thedeepnow2025.wordpress.com
“It’s about capturing the texture of the experience, not just what they did, but how it felt,” Professor Worrall said.
And how did it feel? Exhilarating. Exhausting. Transformative.
“My experience in Japan unfolded as an immersion into time and culture, exploring buildings that were not merely space, but time made visible,” said Abbey Chorley.
Another student, Grace Wesley, said the trip changed how she thinks about architecture, not just as a profession, but as a social act, something entangled with population, culture, urgency, and time.
“This experience reminded me why I chose architecture, because it sits at the intersection of beauty, function and responsibility. I feel more focused now, more curious, and ready to contribute,” she said.
Back home now, far from sake barrels and daily ramen staples, the students are still reflecting on their immersive learning experience. And the real conclusion may lie further ahead, in the projects they’ll one day design with a sharper eye for heritage, a deeper respect for place, and, perhaps, a quiet memory of the timber beams and fishing boats of Ubara, on the Pacific coast of Japan.