Works#Sustainability

The Animal Science Museum, located within Chiba City Zoological Park, has undergone a complete renovation of its displays area, taking into consideration that the building is nearly 40 years old. The museum is a "zoological museum" themed around the "tropical rainforest," a treasure trove of life, aiming to provide insights into ecosystems, foster learning, and encourage action for the future. Visitors can observe gorillas, birds, nocturnal animals, and other flora and fauna inhabiting the rainforest up close, while displays before and after convey the interconnectedness of life and the preciousness of the global environment.

This hotel is directly connected to Kitahiroshima Station on the JR Chitose Line, the nearest station to "Hokkaido Ballpark F Village." The first to third floors are commercial facilities, and the fourth to thirteenth floors house the hotel with a total of 158 guest rooms. Our company was mainly in charge of concept design and construction of the hotel lobby and the 11th-floor guest room area, which is themed after the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. The lobby space is filled with baseball-themed touches, and the ceiling structure is designed to evoke the Fighters' home stadium, "Escon Field Hokkaido," and incorporates the Fighters' colors to create an exciting atmosphere. On the Fighters floor, the corridors are used as a gallery space to displays signed uniforms and photographs of the players, and the guest rooms are decorated in a chic black color scheme reminiscent of Escon Field, with views of the stadium from the windows.

The Panasonic Group Pavilion "Nomo's Land" is based on the concept of "Unlock your nature," and is a pavilion that draws out the potential of children through technology that analyzes their sensibilities and experiences that stimulate the five senses. Utilizing the latest technology from Panasonic Holdings, the pavilion achieves a spatial design that harmonizes with the world of "Nomo's Land" by using tiles that evoke the tactile concept design of walking on natural ground, finishes made of natural wood with a metallic texture, and concept design methods that integrate 3D printing. In terms of sustainability, the pavilion incorporates advanced design and construction methods, including the reusability of tiles and biodegradable resin printing, and the spatial and experiential concept design approach is centered on what can be done for the future of children.

Green Park FLOOP, operated by Fujifilm Business Innovation, opened in 2024 as an experiential facility where adults can make new discoveries and children can learn and think freely, allowing them to experience various technologies related to multifunction printers, learn about environmental issues and Fujifilm Business Innovation's technologies in an easy-to-understand way, and explore a sustainable future for our planet. In its four experiential displays zones (Studio, Technology, Think, Action), visitors can learn interactively about future urban development, multifunction printer technology, and environmental issues. The adjoining Cafe & Co-work offers environmentally conscious menus based on the concept of "circulation." Throughout the facility, the company expresses its commitment to the environment and technological innovation, while providing visitors with an opportunity to think about and act on a sustainable future. The aim was to create a new learning space that is open to the community and enjoyable for both adults and children.

This facility is a conservation and research facility for the Amami rabbit, a special natural monument. The name of the facility, "Kuruguru," means "dark black" in Shimaguchi (Amami dialect), and represents the Amami rabbit's coat color and the image of life circulating round and round. Here, visitors can take on the rabbit's scale and adventure through the night forest. They will be surprised by cars that suddenly appear and huge predators, and push aside plants and flowers taller than themselves to search for forest creatures that react to the black light. The facility is designed to help visitors understand the rabbit's feelings and fears by seeing them from the rabbit's perspective, and to foster empathy. Furthermore, the treatment room for rescued rabbits is fully open to visitors, showing the reality of injuries caused by traffic accidents and other causes, and the facility is a place where visitors can watch over rescued rabbits until they are released back into the wild, surrounded by the nature of Amami Oshima, and think about the coexistence of humans and rabbits.

Air Water Hokkaido's new facility, "Air Water Forest," is an open innovation facility that addresses social issues in order to realize a sustainable society and a safe, secure, and prosperous life. Within this facility, the restaurant and cafe "Eureka" was created as a place to disseminate and share "agriculture and food," one of the Air Water Group's initiatives. The space was designed in conjunction with the architectural concept design so that the facility's concept of "sustainable and prosperous living" can be felt even in the restaurant. Just like the name "Eureka" (meaning "I found it! I understand!" in ancient Greek), concept design allows customers to discover the rich land of Hokkaido and the true deliciousness of the ingredients nurtured by that land.

This is a trial project towards "creating an inclusive stadium where everyone can enjoy themselves." For the first time, "Sensor-Friendly Tickets" will be sold at the professional baseball Eastern League official game to be held on Sunday, September 22, 2024, with the cooperation of the organizers, The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nippon Television, and Tokyo Dome.

The Former Hokkaido Government Office Building, built in 1888, is known affectionately as the "Red Brick Office" and is an important cultural property that represents Hokkaido. It will be temporarily closed from 2019 for seismic reinforcement and preservation renovation work. During the closure, we planned a temporary observation facility with the theme "Only here and now" that can only be viewed during the renovation work.

This project was undertaken by Takekoma Shrine, one of Japan's three major Inari shrines, to create a vibrant community. Our company played a central role, forming a tripartite team involving the shrine, the local community, and our company. The team's work was broadly divided into five areas: "maintenance of the shrine's sacred grove," "establishment of a café," "revitalization of the local community," "promotion," and "creation of a new festival." Our company provided comprehensive production services, including planning, logo concept design, design administration, landscape concept design, construction, exterior work, café opening support, café menu development, product development, video production, and public relations. Our goal was to ensure that Takekoma Shrine continues to exist as an indispensable part of the lives of the citizens, in a sustainable way, for the future. 〇Comprehensive Production Details ① Identifying customer challenges ② Developing solutions ③ Considering implementation (operation) structure ④ Establishing implementation (operation) structure (leasing) ⑤ concept design based on the opinions of the shrine and operators ⑥ Product development (food and beverage menu, selection of products for sale) ⑦ Considering revitalizing the entire shrine ⑧ Creating a promotional video for the entire shrine ⑨ Considering CAFÉ promotion ⑩ Planning the opening ceremony ⑪ Attracting various media outlets ⑫ Implementing PDCA after opening ⑬ Creating a new festival ⑭ Creating a global promotional video for overseas markets. By soliciting supporters from our network (mainly local companies), we have established a system that can operate independently.

Based on the concept of "NEXT HOME," this new office building project will be the foundation for the next generation for Yamaichi Jisho, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary since its founding. In response to the request from the company's president, Watanabe, that "we don't want a building that's just cool. We want a building that's alive," we held multiple workshops for all employees and the preparatory committee, and filled every corner of the new office with the thoughts of each employee, fostering a sense of it being "our office." Through this project, the motivation of each employee has changed, and new interactions have been created both inside and outside the company. An original "office for ourselves" has been born here, which will help Yamaichi Jisho solve the issues they expect from the company, such as communication, recruiting, and inheriting their DNA.

As part of an R&D project that we have been working on since 2022, we launched "material record," which is themed around "materials = Earth's resources," and have announced the first product of this project, the sound device "noon by material record" (hereinafter, "noon"). This product is an experiential art piece that focuses on various sustainable materials that make up the Earth, connects "sound" and "materials," and is filled with the creativity of NOMURA Co.,Ltd. Group, which excels in spatial design. For the release of "noon," we collaborated with the travel circle "MIDNIGHT PIZZA CLUB," consisting of actor Taiga Nakano, video director Ryohei Kamide, and photographer Yusuke Abe. In addition to concept design the space for the book launch event (held from December 13th to 15th) for "MIDNIGHT PIZZA CLUB 1st BLAZE LANGTANG VALLEY," a book compiling travel records released on December 12th, 2024, Ryohei Kamide also installed "noon" and played ambient sounds created from sound sources he collected during his travels, alongside displays of photographs of Nepal taken during his journey.

We exhibited "Towards Our Future - SCRAP MATERIAL UPCYCLE PROJECT - SCRAPTURE" at "DESIGNART TOKYO 2023," one of Japan's largest concept design and art festivals. "SCRAPTURE" is an upcycling project that transforms "SCRAP," which is discarded from building materials and interiors materials, into "FURNITURE," and further reuses it as recycled material, returning it to the earth. We created furniture as practical and sustainable message art that makes interiors waste, which is usually not seen, feel close to us and continues to appeal to our emotions and memories. After that, it is circulated as new interiors material, and we aim for it to be a medium that expands the circle of co-creation and becomes an opportunity to think about a better future.

The Refineverse Group advocates Waste to Wealth and is working on "new manufacturing" using waste as a resource. With this office relocation, our company was in charge of construction from concept design design to interiors construction work.

Cacao Tiegokaan visits cacao producing areas and works with cacao farmers to create chocolate from beans without compromise. The interior of the store is decorated with crushed cacao husk, the thin skin of cacao that is discarded during the chocolate manufacturing process. The chocolate carefully made from cacao fruit and the interior of the store, wrapped in cacao husk, resonate with each other, creating a special space where you can experience the charm of cacao with your whole body.

Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Garden opened in 1924 as Japan's first public botanical garden, and will celebrate its 100th anniversary on January 1, 2024. To mark the 100th anniversary, the garden has developed a new acorn forest area called "Dongreen Lab" in the garden. The area is a 3,000 square meter area in the center of the garden, where more than 10 types of acorn trees, including konara oak and sawtooth oak, are collected from all over the world. The garden has a bear-shaped "acorn post" that allows children to actually pick up acorns and feel their shape and smell, and a "highlight caption" that allows children to feel the diversity of acorns, allowing them to learn about the ecosystem while touching various types of acorns. The collected acorns will also be used in workshops within the garden and as gifts for the bears at Kyoto City Zoo.