design projects

Exploring History of the Elementary School in Kyoto

2021

Kyoto

In Kyoto, there are several projects that redevelop the land of the abolished elementary school as commercial facilities and hotels. However, Kyoto is an area that has a rare history nationwide, where elementary schools were once established based on the donation of local residents. As the number of tourists increases, land price rises and the outflow of the population is progressing. How should the redevelopment of elementary schools face with the future of the city? ... We started working because we unraveled the histor"&"y of Kyoto from the Muromachi period ...

Uokusa Wagon

2021

Ameyoko and neighbourhood, Tokyo

In 2020, many restaurants were closed due to the spread of COVID-19. Uokusa, a outside standing bar on the Ameyoko high street, was firstly optimistic then temporarily closed in April after an emergency declaration. He resumed business around July, when the infection was a little calm, but he was wondering if he should continue to operate. Since the ventilation is better than indoors, I encouraged him that everyone should go have drink on the street outside during Covid-19, and we decided to create a mobile standing bar Uokusa Wagon departing from his shop to hidden narrow streets, underpasses, parks and any other public spaces...

Desiging Your Dreaming Home

2019

There are a number of people who want to build their dream home. But who successfully did that? It always happens with satisfaction and regret. Wha kind of process do they go through? To see the true reality we visited 8 family homes to interview their process of designing home in details. After we analysed the journey map the service idea has been gradually take on shape...

Redesigning Airline’s Customer Experience

2013 - 2017

A variety of people works at an airline, such as call centre operators, ground staffs, pilots, and CAs. Especially if you work in a bigger company it's always difficult to see through whole picture and details. it's also hard to recognise how other staffs work and how customers use the whole service. This project started to write such a whole picture on a large journey map…

Community Engagement for Tsunami Memorial Park

2012 - 2013

Ishinomaki, Japan

My father was born Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture and there are relatives living around the area so I lost four relatives in the huge earthquake in 11 March 2011. I visited Ishinomaki with my cousin after the earthquake to check on their dead bodies. I felt I could do nothing but that experience made think if I can use my design skills to do something for the reconstruction. My colleague and I visited a friend who was involved in urban planning after the earthquake disaster and he told us that there was a plan to build a memorial park over the next 10 years, and the mayor of Ishinomaki said he wanted him to proceed the plan with the participatory process of residents. However, the the proposed site was used to be a residential area before the tsunami, and the grief of the victims was still strongly remained and it was hard to even start discussion. Therefore, I felt I can use my skill of facilitator to start dialogues to develop a community before planning a park...

Future Seen Through the Closet

2012

How do people coordinate clothing everyday? To explore the answer, I decided to visit someone's home to look into the contents of the closet. There are a fashionista who throws millions on clothes, an economical person who produces herself with an perfect combinations from her fewer clothes. The investigation of closet eventually lead the team to the development of new services that share the coordinate of clothes...

Ethnography

2009 - 2012

I hated advertising because I felt they are selling ​​things with the power of money. So I started working in an advertising agency. When I was in BA, I first studied poverty and conflict in developing countries and decided to get a job to acquire the skills and knowledge of using the huge power in the capital market. Four years after being rubbed by hard work in advertising industry, I moved to the R&D department and I worked in the field of ethnography. It is all about observing and interviewing people for developping new products and services. It was my turning point to thinking about my role in the society...