Dr. Nanci Takeyama has received her Bachelor degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from Sao Paulo University, Master of Design from Kyushu University and Ph.D. in Design Research from the Kobe Design University. In her commercial career she has worked at very prestigious design offices, and her commercial works have been featured in several international design magazines and books. Dr. Takeyama’s research field link design and anthropology, philosophy, mythology, psychology, cosmology, to mention a few. Her first book, “Mountain floats to connect this world and the other”, co- authored with Professor Sugiura Kohei and other acclaimed researchers on Asian design, was published in December 2012. Nanci is the founding director of ‘design for’, a group engaged in utilising scholarly research, to advocate cultural understanding and preservation by using design as a dialogue.