Rats in the City

Installations, Experiences, and Public Exhibitions

Rats in the City is a research-based installation series created by an interdisciplinary team of designers, a scientist, and a photographer that invites audiences to encounter urban rats anew—beyond prejudice. Built from a year of fieldwork across Tokyo, the design materializes the hidden lives of rats into visual and spatial narratives, turning fear into informed curiosity. As rat populations rise globally, the project redefines urban coexistence as a behavioral and systemic challenge rather than a pest issue. Through a series of exhibitions, it fosters a vital shift in public mindset: from “eradicate” to “co-design for coexistence.”