Ms Young (30), who was nominated for the exchange by her employer, the Dunedin City Council, leaves Dunedin for Tokyo today for a two-week visit of eight sites around Japan, including the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, wooden eco-houses in Takayama and the World Heritage site in Shirakawa, to examine the relationship between cultural properties and the natural environment.
She is one of 25 participants in the exchange - the others are from east Asia and Australia - and she will begin her trip by presenting a report on a playground development she did while working as a landscape architect living in Auckland.
It involved consultation with iwi and local government to develop a design integrating cultural processes, she said.
Ms Young said was she interested in Eastern-style urbanism, especially in Tokyo, and how it differed from traditional Western urban design.
"I hope I learn enough to be able to use the good things from urban design in Japan here, while recognising the differences in culture."
The all-expenses-paid exchange is funded by the Japanese Government and is part of the Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange of Students and Youth Programme.
