Works#Kansai

「奈良監獄ミュージアム by 星野リゾート」は、重要文化財「旧奈良監獄」の保存活用事業として、奈良県奈良市に開館しました。コンセプトは「美しき監獄からの問いかけ」。星野リゾートが世界的クリエイターと共に、監獄という特異な空間を通じて日本の行刑の歴史と監獄という社会をひもとき、「自由ってなんだろう」といった本質的なテーマから、来館者一人ひとりの人生観に「問い」を投げかける新たな体験を提供します。ミュージアムは、第三寮や看守所など当時の状態を残した「保存エリア」と、「展示エリア」で構成されています。展示エリアは、8つの展示室で奈良監獄の歩みを日本の行政制度と共に紹介するA棟、刑務所という特殊な社会での生活を「規律」「食事」「衛生」「作業」「更生」「お金」「自由」の7つのテーマで紹介するB棟、「罪と罰」「時間と命」といった普遍的なテーマのもと、5組のアーティスト作品と受刑者による刑務所アートを展示するC棟、カフェとショップが併設されたD棟からなります。当社はミュージアムの空間デザイン、設計を担当し、さまざまなクリエイター、ライターの方々と連携しながら、展示情報と空間体験を融合させる空間づくりを行いました。また、解説計画の策定や、各種の再現模型や造形、刑務作業の一端を伝える映像制作など、展示コンテンツの設計・制作を担当しました。

"Happy Lawson Town" is a concept that aims to revitalize the town by making Lawson stores community hubs and creating real connections between people of all generations. Our company and Nomura Arcs, a group company that handles comprehensive building services, were consistently responsible for the realization of Happy Lawson Town, from the survey and planning of this store, to the basic concept, as well as the design including the building and landscape, construction, and logo signage.

The Bandai Namco Group exhibited a pavilion at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai World Expo to create a space that would inspire people around the world to think about the future through "Gundam." This pavilion was built around an original video story created for the Expo, themed "Designing a Future Society Where Life Shines," and was a walk-through, multi-stage theater that allowed visitors to experience a future world where living in space is commonplace and mobile suits are used peacefully. Our company worked alongside the Bandai Namco Group from the conceptual stage, and was asked to elevate and develop their content into an immersive spatial experience. We implemented in the space the unique and captivating story created by the Bandai Namco Group, maximizing its entertainment value with interactive experiences, overwhelming power, immersion, and a sense of presence. For guests, we created a comprehensive entertainment space like a theme park where they can broaden and deepen their thinking about their future and space through Gundam.

The Lake Biwa Museum, a long-established museum deeply rooted in the local community, underwent a partial renovation, using the slogan "A New Aquarium Created by Everyone" and raising support through crowdfunding. The newly installed Biwa Giant Catfish tank further highlights the presence of the catfish as the master of Lake Biwa, and has been revamped with a multifaceted exhibit that includes a deep-water and shallow-water layout and a hands-on comparison of four species of catfish native to Japan. The new Ayu (sweetfish) tank features a tank display that captures a scene from fishing, and the spatial design that traverses the lake's surface and bottom, centering on the interaction between people and fish, conveying the cycle of life in the lake in an experiential way. Our company was in charge of the exhibition design and planning, signage and graphic design, fixture production, content design and production, and exhibition construction.

Mitsui Garden Hotel Kyoto Shinmachi Bettei was developed in 2014 on Shinmachi Street, a street that retains a strong sense of Kyoto's character, on the site of the former Matsuzakaya Kyoto purchasing office, based on the concept of "tradition, inheritance, and regeneration." Architectural materials and storehouses from the former Matsuzakaya Kyoto purchasing office have been passed down to the current hotel as part of the history and culture of the area. In this renovation, while inheriting the concept from the time of opening, the hotel focused on renovating guest rooms, the lobby, and back-of-house areas to respond to diversifying accommodation needs and changes in hotel operations. The aim was to create a space that enhances the comfort of the hotel while carefully preserving its historical background.

This project involved the renovation of the first-floor entrance hall of Osaka Red Cross Hospital. Our company was responsible for planning, design, and construction. The entrance hall is the main entrance to the entire hospital and is the face of the hospital. It is not merely an entrance and exit, but a place that serves as a point of contact with the outside world, and at the same time, it is positioned as a central place within the hospital, aiming to create a place where people gather and liven up the atmosphere. To realize this, we proposed a space that would bring new value to this location while also promoting the Osaka Red Cross Hospital brand.

OSAKA INNOVATION HUB (OIH) was established in 2013 as a global innovation hub that attracts talent, information, and capital from both Japan and abroad, creating an environment where innovation can be fostered and driving the development of Osaka and the Kansai region. This time, in order to create an environment in which startups and the ecosystem that supports them can grow, the facility has been renovated with the concepts of "gathering," "connecting," and "growing," and in order to expand the facility area and enhance functions to promote interaction and strengthen support for startups, our company was in charge of design, layout, signage and graphic concept design, environmental features, building execution, and exhibit execution.

This project involved the renovation of Daiko Electric Co., Ltd.'s Head Office office (5th and 6th floors). For this Head Office office function refresh in approximately 20 years, our Tokyo and Osaka team members collaborated to clarify the current situation and challenges through interviews, site visits, and workshops regarding management strategy, future work styles, and corporate culture, thereby defining the ideal workplace. We also collaborated with Daiko Electric's lighting design team, TACT, to develop a space centered on lighting proposals. Our aim was to create a space where each employee can engage with "light," experience its value, and discuss it.

We were responsible for the entire process, from design, layout and planning to interiors construction, for Head Office relocation project of Ai Kogyo, a house builder based in Osaka with operations nationwide. Ai Kogyo aims to create a space that allows people to experience their unique character and corporate culture, prioritizing the enhancement of their corporate image and constructing concept design that inspires trust and pride.

The signature pavilion "null²" for the 2025 Japan International Exposition (Osaka-Kansai Expo) is a pavilion produced by media artist Yoichi Ochiai that creates two experiences based on the motif of "mirrors," which were inspired by the theme "Refining Life." The first is architecture that creates an "unknown landscape." The gigantic structure, covered with a special mirror exterior membrane developed from scratch, becomes a sculptural building that distorts the surrounding landscape and people by smoothly deforming itself, creating an unknown landscape. The second is a mirrored experience using digital bodies that creates an "unknown experience." The space inside the pavilion is an experiential theater content where visitors' bodies are digitized, organically deformed, and interact with autonomously operating bodies (digital humans). The experience of encountering a digitized version of oneself is a reinvention of the mirror, something that has not been done since the dawn of history. Our company was in charge of interiors direction and production, interiors concept design, interiors planning, and interiors construction.

NANKAI reconstructed the common meeting room area of Parks Tower, an office building adjacent to Namba Parks in Osaka, as the "PARKS PATIO" lounge for employees. The space is designed as a "special backyard for workers" in response to the lush greenery of Parks Garden, the symbol of Namba Parks. As a place that workers use on a daily basis, we have created an environment that accommodates not only meetings and work, but also various ways of spending time, such as taking a break or changing one's mind. Through a worker-participatory production process, artwork using plants in the garden, and sound effects that incorporate the environmental sounds of the rail line, we aim to enhance the overall value of the office building and the worker experience, while incorporating a space for physical and mental conditioning within the convenience of the city. We were in charge of planning design, layout and production construction.

This café features an AI-powered oven, "Baumkuchen AI Craftsman 'THEO'," which bakes and serves Baumkuchen in real time in a show kitchen. Inspired by the theme of "life" from the 2025 Japan International Exposition (Osaka-Kansai Expo), the café uses "eggs" as its motif. The interior is predominantly white, with rounded chairs and tables, creating a bright space that softly reflects the light streaming in from the windows. Furthermore, the floor, walls, ceiling, and tables are made from recycled eggshells used in Baumkuchen production, expressing a vision of a future confectionery shop that avoids waste and incorporates materials into its architecture. *Opening period: April 13th (Sun) - October 13th (Mon), 2025

Producer Hiroaki Miyata's signature pavilion for the 2025 Japan International Exposition (Osaka-Kansai Expo), "Better Co-Being," is a pavilion without a roof or walls, standing as if blending into the adjacent "Forest of Tranquility." With the theme of "Resonating Lives," visitors are led through a resonant experience consisting of three sequences, starting from the unique connections they make when they gather on that day and at that time. In Sequence 1, visitors reflect on themselves and others, and rediscover "what connects us." By confronting diverse motifs, they become aware of the value of others and their own desires, gaining clues to resonance toward the future. In Sequence 2, they experience a perspective that resonates with nature, culture, and the lives nurtured there. Through the universal motif of "voice," they listen to global values and realize how the customs of distant regions connect to their own lives. In Sequence 3, visitors connect with one another and experience envisioning a better future while engaging with the world. By feeling connected to people and nature and creating a rainbow together, they acknowledge their differences while looking up at the same sky and gain a sense of moving towards the future. In the final epilogue, a unique video is screened that overlays the actions and environmental data experienced by visitors at that moment, providing clues to their connection with the world and their journey towards the future together. In this pavilion, our company was responsible for the production and installation of the art installation that forms the core of the resonant experience, as well as the installation displays work of communication equipment related to "echorb" (sponsored by Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.), a special device that guides visitors through the experience.

The Fukushima Reconstruction displays, sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, was held for five days from May 20th to 24th at EXPO Messe "WASSE" within the Osaka-Kansai Expo site. The event showcased the activities of people in the Hamadori region of Fukushima Prefecture and other areas who, despite facing a complex disaster involving earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, have managed to preserve the region's culture and attractions and pass them on to the future. It also introduced new initiatives by various businesses developing cutting-edge robots, rockets, and other technologies.

For the "Wakayama Zone" of the Kansai Pavilion at the 2025 World Exposition in Japan (Osaka-Kansai Expo), we collaborated with Hideki Yoshimoto, the general director of the Wakayama Zone, to express "high-quality Wakayama." The video device "Totem," reminiscent of the giant trees of the Kii Mountains, is finished with Kishu lacquer, and the counter tables and chairs that provide dining experiences are also made of Kishu wood. Wakayama's traditional crafts and materials are utilized in the various elements that make up the space, condensing the charm of Wakayama, which is a source of pride for the world, into the space.