I hope the co-creation partner is 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.
In 2018, Dr. Makoto Fujita, who received the Wolf Prize's Chemistry Division Award, also known as the precedent of the Nobel Prize in 2022 and became the third professor of excellence at the University of Tokyo, was retired by the end of 2022, and was looking for a research site for the next fiscal year and beyond, received a proposal from Mitsui Fudosan to use Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha as a research base. For the past five years, we have been promoting industry-academia collaboration as one of the "Social Collaboration Courses" of the Univ. of Tokyo. Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha's concept of "open innovation base through industry-academia collaboration" was perfectly aligned with our objectives. That’s why we launched FS CREATION.
What was the reason why Mr. Sato decided to work on industry-academia collaboration?
When I became a teacher, about one or two companies a year had joint research with companies, but I was honest that it didn't work very well. They didn’t feel “happy” to each other. After that, I moved to Tohoku University, where I decided to collaborate with a company. I assisted in managing the entire project, and I felt that this was going very well. There was a relationship in which people could work together firmly and discuss freely. I knew at that time that it would work well, and conversely, if we don't do so far, we won't be successful in winning each other. This experience is linked to FS CREATION.
When you visit FS CREATION, the glass-filled space is very impressive first.
Does this experience make use of this space design?
Yes, that's right. The laboratory, which was a 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 were preconceptions that both the creator and the user were the ones. However, the laboratory at Tohoku University is covered with glass, the visibility is good, safe, and for example, looking at the other party through the glass, you can see that it is time to talk to you now. It’s easy to talk to and have a bloody conversation. I learned at that time that the co-creation partner should always be in the same space, and that the design of the space affects the quality of communication.
Therefore, in order to create FS CREATION on the 6th floor of Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha, we conducted architectural design and concept design jointly with Kimiki Mochizuki of the Architecture & Construction Office, which built a laboratory at Tohoku University.
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※Link to the Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City website.
