Past Contests

theme

"excited"

Judging Criteria

1. Understanding of the topic

Do they understand and express the theme of "excitement"?

2. The idea's starting point

Is this an interesting and "attractive" point of view?

3. Future possibilities

Does it give the impression that the idea has room for growth and that it has the potential to be realized?

Recruitment details

Going to a department store or shopping center with your family, or going shopping or eating with friends in town. Or going to school or the gym on your own may have been a change of pace, like enjoying a short trip. Now that we can do more things at home or in the palm of our hands, we want to rediscover the joy of visiting a physical store. We are looking for ideas for stores that will make you feel excited.

Judges

Adastria Co., Ltd.
Cainz Corporation
Camel Coffee Co., Ltd.
Kinokuniya Bookstore Co., Ltd.
Creators' NEXT Co., Ltd.
Jamo associates
Starbucks Coffee Japan Co., Ltd.
Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan Ltd.
Baycrews Co., Ltd.
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.
UNITED ARROWS LTD.
LINE Inc.
Royal Holdings Co., Ltd.
Workman Co., Ltd.
TANSEISHA Co., Ltd.

Grand Prize

Title

Matching Everyday! (and Special Jury Award)

Award Winners

Kaho Uraguchi / Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music

concept

Supermarkets have both private and public qualities. The contents of a person's shopping cart can give you a glimpse into what they'll eat today, what they like, and what kind of life they lead. However, in most cases, the inside of a supermarket is the same as being on a train, where behavior is standardized and people rarely talk to each other. We live in an age where encounters can be easily optimized through user analysis.

Excellence Award

Title

Noriori-Charimeguri - A multi-level, road-level commercial facility with bicycle parking

Award Winners

Kirori Shigematsu / Kyoto City University

concept

"A new shopping and lifestyle experience with a three-dimensional city walk where you ride a bicycle into buildings" Bicycles are an excellent means of transportation that can contribute to health, the environment, and society. More and more people are using bicycles for various reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic, global warming, and SDGs. These bicycles may be the catalyst for revitalizing people, cities, and businesses. This is a proposal for architecture and business that will make bicycle users more fun and happy than ever before, and further enrich the city and its residents.

Student Awards

Title

Transformal

Award Winners

Marumi Satoishi / Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School

concept

A closet in the city. Wear what you want when you want. It seems simple but it's difficult. But I don't want my sense of style to be disturbed. The magic of wearing it for a moment.

Special Jury Award

Title

One-push vending machine (also finalist/final judging selection work)

Award Winners

Yuta Kawakami / Wakayama University

concept

How do we feel when we get dressed before going out on a date? We probably feel a different kind of tension than usual, and get excited as we imagine what will happen next. Yes, getting dressed is a preparatory action to enrich the time we are about to spend. However, there are situations in which we want to get dressed but are unable to do so. That is when an unexpected plan is decided. There are times when you are suddenly invited to dinner while you are out, or when you are staying at a friend's house but have nothing prepared, and you do not have anything to dress up properly. At such times, have you ever thought, "I wish I could use only the amount I need for one day, and it is a waste to buy products that I have at home just to use for one day?" At such times, if there is a wax or perfume that only requires one pump, you can buy it without hesitation. It not only allows you to easily get dressed while you are out, but also gives the younger generation, who have not been able to fully understand the feel of the product and have not been able to spend enough on it, an opportunity to try products in real life, and helps them easily find the ideal product for themselves. One pump helps you discover a new you and enrich your lifestyle.

Title

Filling the town with commerce

Award Winners

Sota Sugihara / Kyoto City University

concept

There are three elements in our lives: work, residence, and commerce. In recent years, there have been buildings that combine these elements in the development of complex facilities, but they are limited to large-scale buildings. In addition, with the spread of online shopping, including e-commerce, the significance of physical stores is being questioned. In this proposal, we propose the introduction of commercial space into apartment buildings and offices, which will be a model case where the element of "commerce" is combined with "work" and "residence". By introducing this to medium-sized buildings, it will be possible to introduce it to many buildings in the city. By incorporating this as a commercial area on the first floor, which has a high rentable ratio, we propose a next-generation form of commercial space that connects the city with "commerce". In this proposal, we propose a model case of a commercial space where you can experience excitement through three things: ① the future, ② new discoveries, and ③ relaxation. We believe that the advantages of visiting a store in person are "being able to find products that you can only find there" and "extraordinary experiences that you can only experience there". By incorporating this into residential areas such as apartment buildings, it will become a space where residents can live a rich life, and by doing this throughout the entire city, we aim to allow the entire city to experience the richness of commerce.

Title

My closet My storage

Award Winners

Yoshiaki Sugi / Osaka University of Arts

concept

With online shopping, you can get what you want anytime, anywhere. Cookies and AI recommend and advertise items that are close to your interests and tastes. However, unlike a dictionary, there is no unexpected discovery or knowledge expansion, such as encountering completely different words, antonyms, or homonyms on the same page. Like shopping at a fish shop or grocery store, even if you don't know the product, the chef will recommend it to you, saying, "It's fresh!" or "It's delicious if you cook it with ●●!", and your knowledge and interest will expand, and you will be able to interact with people. It's an exciting experience to see the real thing up close and feel it with all five senses. We propose a form and event that connects these online and real worlds and allows you to encounter new items that are beyond your knowledge and expectations. You can see the closets of your followers you're interested in in real life, or enter your favorite closet or warehouse for an annual national award. Like a RPG, you can customize your closet and storage online while shopping in real life. Save your real shopping items online. Aimless shopping turns into a thrilling experience of being invited into an unknown shopping dungeon. Even if you run out of time, you can continue and level up.

Title

Color-free fashion

Award Winners

Sakuma Shino / Shizuoka Prefectural Shizuoka Higashi High School

concept

Color vision deficiency × Fashion Color vision deficiency indicates that a person's color vision is not normal. In Japan, it is said that 1 in 20 men and 1 in 500 women, more than 3 million people in the country, fall under this category. "I want to change the current situation where there are people who want to enjoy fashion but cannot." "I want everyone to be able to dress themselves up and enjoy themselves every day." With these wishes in mind, I conceived this store. The moment when you discover something new is very exciting. I think that in the next generation store I envision, many people will be able to witness that moment. Why don't you also discover a new you?

Title

"MIKKE" Food Share Counter: Find Something You Love

Award Winners

Yoshihiro Ando, Kazutoshi Tomita, Keigo Bunsen, Yoshiyuki Ishii

concept

"We propose the Food Share Counter "MIKKE" as a next-generation service for imported food supermarkets such as KALDI. The most exciting moment when shopping is when you find an attractive product and pick it up. However, sometimes the price or quantity doesn't fit your lifestyle, so you pass on the purchase and that excitement fades away. The Food Share Counter "MIKKE" provides a place where customers can try small amounts of various products on the spot, helping to turn the excitement of "I found something interesting!" into the excitement of "I like it!"

Title

Wall Bookstore

Award Winners

Natsumi Iwasaki / Nagoya Mode Gakuen

concept

We propose a new type of bookstore to solve the problem that "young people these days don't read books." Many people say that one of the reasons young people are increasingly turning away from books is that "they don't know what to read." It is true that people who don't usually read books don't go to bookstores, and they can't tell what to choose just by looking at the cover. So by posting a sentence from a novel that resonates with them on the wall, even "people who aren't interested in reading" and "people who like reading" will become interested in the contents of the novel by learning a little about it, and increase their desire to buy.

Title

Participatory stores cannot be created by designers and commercial facility production companies alone

Award Winners

Tetsuo Kanasugi / Design Studio Physics Element Co., Ltd.

concept

Participatory store design cannot be achieved by designers and commercial facility production companies alone. It is an exciting two-dimensional store where participants can participate in everything from area selection to planning, consumption, and operation (partially).

Title

Live kitchen - A supermarket specializing in live sales

Award Winners

Motoki Ikawa, Soi Kinoshita, Hiroya Shirai, Junsuke Honda, Sora Watanabe / Miyashita Seminar, Kokugakuin University

concept

In recent years, online supermarkets and shopping sites have seen an increase in users, and are becoming popular as a new option. However, there are still many people who use supermarkets. The number one reason people do not use online supermarkets or shopping sites is that they cannot actually see the products before making a choice, so it can be said that supermarkets have great value. Therefore, we propose a supermarket where you can enjoy "looking and choosing" to the fullest.

Title

CO-cafe

Award Winners

Kazuki Ikeda and Yuhi Maeda / Graduate School of Chiba University

concept

We want to deliver excitement through experiences, especially in this digital age. We propose a "CO-cafe" where users create their own stores using recycled coffee grounds. As we move to the digital age, the previously "natural" action of visiting a store to make a purchase is changing into an action that has value as an experience. The moment when we feel "excited" is when we feel an "attachment" that comes with a sense of belonging to something that is "ours" through the experience. When you buy clothes and carry a paper bag around, or when you complete a handmade product, you feel an attachment to the thing or thing, and you can feel excited and uplifted. So, can we direct this "attachment" towards public stores and create excitement? "CO-cafe" aims to be a store where users create their own store and feel attached to it, and where many people can feel "excited".

Finalists/Final Selections

Title

A hair salon exclusively for old men

Award Winners

Naoto Kishinami

concept

The rate of men using hair salons has been steadily increasing since 2014, and currently 50% of men in their 20s and 30s use hair salons. However, the rate of use drops suddenly after the age of 40, and men turn to 1,000 yen haircuts and barber shops. In fact, there are very few middle-aged and older men using hair salons, and there are pessimistic comments online asking "how long should I continue to go to hair salons?" As men get older, they often feel out of place when getting their hair cut next to younger women, and many feel uncomfortable. In addition, although male customers tend not to like changing hairdressers, the active lifespan of the hairdresser is very young at 30.8 years, so there are cases where men stop going to the hair salon when their hairdresser quits. Currently, when men in their 40s and older try to change hair salons, the hassle outweighs the excitement of being able to transform themselves. In this proposal, we will narrow our customer base to middle-aged and older generations, and by matching the age of the hairdressers to that, we will propose a store that will enable hairdressers to work long-term, while also evoking the excitement of change in people in their 40s and older who are starting to lose interest in fashion.

Title

Concierge Open Board

Award Winners

Honda Ko / HAFEN

concept

We propose a space to sell products recommended by consumers. The products sold will be selected based on unique value criteria (qualitative evaluation such as design, cuteness, etc.) rather than the store's value criteria (quantitative evaluation such as new releases and price). Although it is a niche market with a very small scale, it creates an exciting experience full of discoveries for visitors. We propose a system and space that allows customers to experience the "discovery and expansion of products" that is unique to physical stores, rather than the "deep digging of products" that is possible with online shops.

Title

STUDIOP is a shop that combines a workshop and a store.

Award Winners

Toyoda Ryo / Tentoten Design

concept

A business plan that combines a workshop and a store to reconsider the importance of products and continue to use them with care. Due to various changes in social conditions caused by climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, it is becoming difficult to maintain the supply chain. In the future, it will be difficult to secure resources for mass production, and it will become difficult to buy products at the previous price, so it is necessary to reconsider the importance of products. We wanted to change the cycle of "sell and that's it" and "buy and throw away" by combining a workshop that can manufacture and repair products with a store. In the store, we will show product repairs and upcycling of unnecessary products, and customers who visit the store will be able to experience our efforts to treat resources and products with care, just like a factory tour, and this experience will lead to the spread of the brand image on social media, etc. Stores are a real point of contact with customers. The strength of the real world is that customers can actually experience the message that the brand sends out. By reflecting the strengths of the store in the products and services, the store will become a powerful partner for EC. By reconsidering the importance of resources, we can create a sense of pride for the brand and an appreciation for the products for customers, leading to the creation of a store that is exciting for both parties.

*Affiliation as of 2022