It would be nice if the co-creation partner was always in the same space.
And the design of the space affects the quality of communication.
First of all, please tell us about the origin of FS CREATION.
The specific reason for this is that Dr. Makoto Fujita, who received the Ulf Prize Chemistry Division Prize of the Nobel Prize in 2018 and became the third "Professor of Excellence" at the University of Tokyo, retired in 2022, and was looking for a research place for the following fiscal year. For the past five years, we have been promoting industry-academia collaboration as one of the "Social Collaboration Courses" at the University of Tokyo. The concept of "Open Innovation Base through Industry-Academia Collaboration" in Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha was perfectly consistent with our objectives. That's why we launched FS CREATION.
What was the reason why Professor Sato decided to work on industry-academia collaboration?
When I became a teacher, I had a joint research with companies about one or two companies a year, but I was honest that it didn't work very well. They didn't feel like "Happy!" However, after that, I moved to Tohoku University and decided to collaborate with a certain company. I assisted the overall project, and I realized that this was going very well. There was a relationship in which people could work closely together and discuss freely. I knew at that time that this would work well, conversely, there would be no success to win-win each other if we didn't do so much. This experience has led to FS CREATION.
When you visit FS CREATION, the glass-walled space is very impressive.
Is this kind of experience utilized in this space design?
Yes, that's right. The laboratory, which was the research base for industry-academia collaboration at Tohoku University, which I just talked about, was a very elaborate space. Originally, synthetic laboratories tend to become closed spaces, and there was a preconception that both the creator and the user were such things. However, the laboratory at Tohoku University is covered with glass and has good visibility and safe, and for example, we can see the other person through the glass and see that it is a good time to talk about it now. It's easy to consult and you can have a bloody conversation. At that time, I learned that co-creation partners should always be in the same space, and that the design of that space affects the quality of communication.
In order to create FS CREATION on the 6th floor of Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha, we conducted architectural design and concept design in collaboration with Kimiki Mochizuki of the Architectural Construction Office, which built the laboratory at Tohoku University.
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