On July 23, 2025, a lecture titled “How Can We Make the Shopping District and Its Surroundings More Interesting by Making Use of Vacant Houses? | Commemorating the Publication of ‘Amsterdam: A Bottom-Up Experimental City’” was held at Shinkei-en Garden in the Bikan Historical Area.
We report on the lecture and the post-lecture discussion, which explored whether various community-building initiatives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, might offer some ideas for revitalizing Kurashiki City’s central urban area.
The information presented here was current when this article was published in September 2025. Please note that it may differ from current information.
Introducing the speaker: Architect Nezu Yukiko, based in the Netherlands
The speaker at this event was architect Nezu Yukiko, who is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
After graduating from university, Nezu moved to the Netherlands and studied architecture at the Berlage Institute. She established her own architecture firm, Urbanberry Design, in 2008. Since then, she has worked on a variety of architectural projects.
Most recently, she also entered the bid for the Netherlands Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, and although her proposal narrowly came in second and was not selected, its distinctive concept connecting Japan and the Netherlands reportedly drew a great deal of interest.
She also served as a speaker at “Reuse, Redevelop and Design: A Workshop and Symposium on the Future of the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Area and Surrounding Areas,” held in Kurashiki in November 2024.
The connection made at that event, along with the publication of her book “Amsterdam: A Bottom-Up Experimental City,” led to the event being held.
The lecture
Drawing on her book, she spoke about a wide range of topics, not only architecture but also “what bottom-up means,” sharing examples from the Netherlands.
Here are some of the topics that caught the writer’s attention from the 90-minute lecture.
What kind of country is the Netherlands?
I think many people are probably familiar with the name of the Netherlands. However, few people may know exactly where it is in Europe.
As shown on the map above, the country is surrounded by major powers: Belgium and France to the south, Germany to the east, and the sea separating it from the United Kingdom to the west. Its land area is about the same as Kyushu.
As a small country that can act nimbly, it also boldly takes on progressive policies and has established a distinctive presence in the international community.
Also, as the saying goes, “God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands,” the country has a history of expanding its territory by extending reclaimed land.
Today, 25% of the country’s land lies below sea level. With concerns also growing about rising sea levels due to global warming, the Dutch have a strong awareness of environmental issues.
Putting the circular economy into practice
Nezu cited “putting the circular economy into practice” as an advanced example from Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.
The “circular economy” is based on the idea of regenerating and circulating used items as resources rather than throwing them away. It is an initiative that goes further than recycling, which processes waste into new materials.
In the Netherlands, these initiatives are reportedly put into practice through bottom-up citizen-led efforts, rather than top-down initiatives led by the government.
Revitalizing the site of a former gasworks
As an example of the circular economy, the lecture introduced a case in which the site of a gasworks that closed in the 1980s was transformed into a park.
Residents were consulted about how to use the former factory site, and they took the lead in holding various events from the bottom up while considering how the site might be used in the future.
It could truly be called an experiment: considering how to use the site while actually trying out a variety of ideas.
Taking residents’ feedback from this series of experiments into account, the former gasworks site was redeveloped as a park that makes use of the remains, and is now used as a place for residents to relax.
Discussion: Bottom-up community building in Kurashiki
In the second half, a discussion was held on the question in the lecture’s title, “How can we make the shopping district and its surroundings more interesting by making use of vacant houses?” The participants were Associate Professor Narikiyo Hitoshi of Notre Dame Seishin University, Sawae Aguri of Library CAFE Hitohi, which organized the event, and speaker Nezu.
Sawae renovated a vacant house in central Kurashiki and opened “Library CAFE Hitohi” in April 2025.
The concept is a shared library café where each person rents a bookcase. Customers can become monthly bookcase owners and have their own bookshelf.
These bookshelves, each reflecting its owner’s personality, serve as a form of self-expression and an indirect community. Sawae said she hopes the wide variety of books on the shelves will become a bridge connecting the people who gather at the café.
During the main discussion, Nezu also asked Sawae, “Do you have any connections with public libraries, such as Kurashiki Central Library?”
Although there are currently no connections with public libraries, they also discussed how it might be interesting to collaborate in some way in the future.
Professor Narikiyo also explained the Vision for the Future of Kurashiki, formulated in March 2025 by the Kurashiki Area Platform, on which she serves as a committee member.
From the Writer
The author saw a commonality with Okayama in the fact that 25% of the Netherlands’ land was created through land reclamation, as Okayama has also developed vast areas of farmland through reclamation since the Edo period.
However, the natural environment is different from Japan’s.
Unlike Japan, surrounded by mountains and rivers and blessed with abundant nature since ancient times, the Netherlands originally had little land, with no mountains and not enough places to live or farmland.
I felt that this may have led to a strong “bottom-up” awareness of environmental issues among individuals, driven by interest in how to use the land they had expanded through reclamation, as well as concerns that reclaimed land could be submerged due to global warming.
Looking at the example of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, I also felt there is still plenty of room to pursue experimental community development in and around Kurashiki’s shopping streets, making effective use of vacant houses and other spaces.
Recently, examples have emerged of neighborhood associations holding distinctive events, such as “Achi Fest.”
I hope that Kurashiki’s future will become even more exciting through diverse perspectives and approaches, driven by bottom-up initiatives led by citizens.
Commemorative Lecture for the Publication of “Amsterdam: An Experimental City from the Bottom Up” Information
| Name | Commemorative Lecture for the Publication of “Amsterdam: An Experimental City from the Bottom Up” |
|---|---|
| Date | Wednesday, July 23, 2025, 6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m. |
| Location | 1-1-20 Chuo, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, Kurashiki Shinkei-en Garden |
| Admission (tax included) | General admission (in-person) / ¥1,000 Student admission (in-person) / ¥500 Online participation / ¥500 |
What would you like to know about Kurashiki?
Enter a search term to find articles on this site
