About us

ACTANT FOREST is a decentralized design research collective forming teams for each project. Through an interdisciplinary and holistic approach, we seek to deeply understand both natural and urban environments, and by transcending the boundaries between the two, to make valuable proposals for contemporary life in the midst of rapid change.

Our services

Green City Management

We support sustainable urban development with a focus on creating forests, or biodiversity hubs.

• Urban forest (tree planting/cultivation) management support
• Urban development concept planning
• Green infrastructure research and analysis

Sustainable Service Design

We design the service experience required for ESG management and impact investing based on various design methods.

• Sustainable service concept and guideline planning
• Circular service experience design
• Branding, communication design

Multispicies Design Lab

We propose new solutions to promote biodiversity based on experimental design research.

• R&D planning and operation support
• Development of green space cultivation design kit
• Development of symbiotic design method

Team

• Ryuichi Nambu Co-founder / Design Director

  CEO of ACTANT. He conducts research from the perspectives of visual communication design, service design, media theory, and cultural anthropology. Born and raised in the suburbs of Tokyo in Tama New Town, an ambiguous place neither in the city center nor in the countryside full of nature.

• Kakuro Odagi Co-founder / Architect

  Born and raised in rural Ibaraki. Specializes in architectural design, urban planning, and town planning. He designs places and systems for living with nature, connecting forests and cities, and conducts various experiments to utilize the potential of nature in social activities.

• Takeshi OkahashiCo-founder / Design Researcher

  He specializes and works in the fields of education, urban development, and business incubation support. Based in Leiden, the Netherlands, where he moved in July 2020, he researches and communicates curated case studies and culture.

• Mai HashibaEditor

  With a background in art history and arts management, she researches and communicates on topics where history, culture, visual art and nature intersect.

• Rina HorisawaWriter

  She joined ACTANT FOREST with experience in media management at a non-profit organization and as a writer at a national newspaper. Conducts research and contributes forest reports with a focus on anthropology, media theory, and journalism.

Partner

• Poietica LLC

  A design-driven research agency based in Kyoto, Japan. Using various methods such as digital fabrication, game engines, and ethnography, they pursue design practices that transcend the boundaries of information/material, nature/culture, human/non-human, and so on.
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• NEWPARK Inc.

  A company designing new park landscapes with data and technology. Through brand development, architectural and spatial DX, and digital platforms, the company creates places that connect people to people and people to nature, creating neighborhoods and communities.
  [website]

Awards & Exhibitions

2024

Exhibition / INSTeM Convention 2024 Spring / Fukutake Hall, The University of Tokyo

2023

Exhibition / Systemic Design – A relational approach to complex issues / Tama Art University Bureau

Exhibition / Material, or / 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

2022

Award / WIRED COMMON GROUND CHALLENGE / Grandprix

Media

2024

Article / WIRED Japanese edition, Vol. 54 “The Regenerative City”

Book / Yasuto Nakanishi et al., Smart city, fungi and Budda: Design thinking beyond human-centeredness (JP) / Tokyo: BNN, Inc.

Article / “Can we turn this place into a forest?” A proposal was sent to a landowner who thought a parking lot would be boring…@Yoyogi-Uehara (JP) / REALTOKYOESTATE

Contribution / 100 Years of Dutch Spatial Design: Continuing to Envision the Landscape of the Future (JP) / Research Institute for High-Life

2023

Contribution / Another Dutch Agriculture: The Potential of Community Urban Agriculture (JP) / Research Institute for High-Life

TV / Dialogue with Material Part 1 / Design × Stories (NHK WORLD-JAPAN)

2022

Interview / Open up the city with the diversity of the forest (JP) / WIRED.jp

Dialogue / Re-Designing the Declining “Modern City”: A “food forest” where humans and nature co-create (JP) / Smart City, fungi and Budda

Clients

Through projects that team up with companies, we provide design support that responds to society’s need for sustainability.

• Kume Sekkei Co., Ltd.
• Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.
• Tokyu Corporation