Past Contests

theme

"Comfort"

Judging Criteria

1. Understanding

Does the student understand and express the theme of "comfort"?

2. Point of view

"A unique perspective that gives it a sense of originality."

3. Possibilities

Does it give you a sense of the potential for growth in the idea and the possibility of it being realized?

Recruitment details

Reunion with people. Reunion with the place.
Daily life is gradually returning. Activities have resumed, many people are coming and going,
Now that the awareness of "interaction" and "connection" is emerging and being regained,
What will the real stores that will make you feel comfortable in the future look like?

Judges

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

Grand Prize

Title

HANABASHIRA

Award Winners

Yosuke Sato, Kosuke Kuriyama, Kohei Fushiki, Norihiro Toyama, Mizuho Endo/ Takenaka Corporation

concept

With the development of ICT, such as YouTube and Mercari, individuals are seizing opportunities and playing an active role in this modern age. Commercial spaces that make people feel "comfortable" in the future will not be given to them unilaterally, but will be created by people themselves. They will challenge themselves to do what they want to do, and in the process, they will meet people with the same aspirations and fans who support them in real life. Visitors will encounter the various talents, ideas, and activities of each individual, and will be stimulated in ways they have never experienced before. We propose "HANABASHIRA," a mechanism that creates commercial spaces that make people feel "comfortable." HANABASHIRA is a flat panel that can be used as a commercial space for individuals, and infrastructure such as electricity and water is installed in the finishing part of the pillars of a building, and it can be used with a single reservation using an app. Since the time and area (= number of flat panels) can be decided according to the individual's activities, the hurdle of opening a store is much lower than traditional store partitions or event participation. The commercial space created by individuals unfolds around the pillars, providing visitors with a fun atmosphere full of individuality. From here, various communications will be born, and new individual activities will be born. This is the next generation of commercial space where individuals' "desires" will blossom.

Excellence Award

Title

Meeting with my friend

Award Winners

Mia Sakikuchi / Chiba Institute of Technology
Kasumi Suzuki / Sendai National College of Technology

concept

It's hard to get into something you've never seen before. But there's something exciting about a new encounter with something "unknown." In this proposal, we consider how to sell rare vegetables. We will encounter an unknown vegetable, and follow its journey from seed to harvest, to being cooked and then to being eaten.
It's like an art gallery, a museum, and a restaurant. It's a comfortable place to meet and get to know unknown vegetables.

Student Awards

Title

Toilet where you can sleep

Award Winners

Ryo Yasuhara Rin Taniguchi Taitaka Koga
/Kogakuin University Graduate School

concept

The use of toilets is not limited to excretion, but also while shopping, taking a break at work, or taking a quick break before a meeting. By adding a function to allow a "comfortable" nap to ordinary toilets, "toilets where you can sleep" will be added all over the city.

Special Jury Award

Title

"Loss Zero"is a retail store where you can comfortably participate in reducing food waste

Award Winners

Kodai Sakurada

concept

[Project Overview]
Unlike the conventional food retail sales method of discounting just before the expiration date, "Loss Zero" is a sales method that slopes the selling price according to the proximity of the expiration date. Loss Zero eliminates the contradiction of "if there is no discount anyway, it is more profitable to buy the product at the back with the further expiration date," and contributes to reducing food waste.
[Background and details]
In response to the social demand for reducing food waste, many retailers are reducing unsold food by discounting food that is close to its expiration date. Consumers are also being encouraged to "choose what they can afford" by purchasing food that is close to its expiration date, regardless of whether it is discounted or not. However, "choose what they can afford" imposes a sense of loss on consumers who want to buy the freshest food possible, which leads to discomfort. Therefore, we have planned a "Loss Zero" retail store that can comfortably participate in reducing food waste. "Loss Zero" eliminates the "sense of loss" felt by "choose what they can afford" by increasing the selling price according to the proximity of the expiration date. Through "Loss Zero", we will build a system where everyone can comfortably contribute to reducing food waste, and realize retail management that is kind to both people and the environment.

Title

Stores with semi-exterior spaces make residential areas more comfortable

Award Winners

Shotaro Hashimoto

concept

This is a proposal to insert Commercial Spaces into a dense residential area and create a "comfortable space" including the surrounding area. With the development of IT technology, the trend of "work style reform," and the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now in an era where various work styles such as teleworking and dual-base living can be selected, and residential areas, which were once primarily a place to return to, have become places where people spend more time. We would like to improve the environmental aspects such as ventilation and lighting in residential areas where more people are staying. We will renovate vacant houses, whose existence has become a problem in recent years, to create semi-exterior spaces and turn them into stores. By doing so, a gap will be created in the dense residential area, allowing light and wind to enter and making the store and its surroundings a comfortable space. We believe that the ideal state of the next generation of stores is to have a positive impact on the surrounding area by opening a store.

Title

Kaiben Lab

Award Winners

Akio Kamogawa / ADAL Co., Ltd.

concept

This is a proposal to insert Commercial Spaces into a dense residential area and create a "comfortable space" including the surrounding area. With the development of IT technology, the trend of "work style reform," and the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now in an era where various work styles such as teleworking and dual-base living can be selected, and residential areas, which were once primarily a place to return to, have become places where people spend more time. We would like to improve the environmental aspects such as ventilation and lighting in residential areas where more people are staying. We will renovate vacant houses, whose existence has become a problem in recent years, to create semi-exterior spaces and turn them into stores. By doing so, a gap will be created in the dense residential area, allowing light and wind to enter and making the store and its surroundings a comfortable space. We believe that the ideal state of the next generation of stores is to have a positive impact on the surrounding area by opening a store.

Title

Under the eaves of the quintet
-A Commercial Spaces you can enjoy your stay with all five senses-

Award Winners

Daichi Hatsumura / Kyoto City University Graduate School
Kuroda Chie

concept

This is a proposal to insert Commercial Spaces into a dense residential area and create a "comfortable space" including the surrounding area. With the development of IT technology, the trend of "work style reform," and the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now in an era where various work styles such as teleworking and dual-base living can be selected, and residential areas, which were once primarily a place to return to, have become places where people spend more time. We would like to improve the environmental aspects such as ventilation and lighting in residential areas where more people are staying. We will renovate vacant houses, whose existence has become a problem in recent years, to create semi-exterior spaces and turn them into stores. By doing so, a gap will be created in the dense residential area, allowing light and wind to enter and making the store and its surroundings a comfortable space. We believe that the ideal state of the next generation of stores is to have a positive impact on the surrounding area by opening a store.

Title

HANABASHIRA

Award Winners

Yosuke Sato, Kosuke Kuriyama, Kohei Fushiki, Norihiro Toyama, Mizuho Endo/ Takenaka Corporation

*Won both the Grand Prize and the Award for Excellence

concept

This is a proposal to insert Commercial Spaces into a dense residential area and create a "comfortable space" including the surrounding area. With the development of IT technology, the trend of "work style reform," and the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now in an era where various work styles such as teleworking and dual-base living can be selected, and residential areas, which were once primarily a place to return to, have become places where people spend more time. We would like to improve the environmental aspects such as ventilation and lighting in residential areas where more people are staying. We will renovate vacant houses, whose existence has become a problem in recent years, to create semi-exterior spaces and turn them into stores. By doing so, a gap will be created in the dense residential area, allowing light and wind to enter and making the store and its surroundings a comfortable space. We believe that the ideal state of the next generation of stores is to have a positive impact on the surrounding area by opening a store.

Title

POP-UP Shopping Street

Award Winners

Activity name: Mud
Hiroshi Kagoshima
/ Freelance, Part-time lecturer at Nishinippon Institute of Technology
Kagoshima Gina Ishigaki Mitsuru Ito Hiroshi

concept

This is a proposal to insert Commercial Spaces into a dense residential area and create a "comfortable space" including the surrounding area. With the development of IT technology, the trend of "work style reform," and the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now in an era where various work styles such as teleworking and dual-base living can be selected, and residential areas, which were once primarily a place to return to, have become places where people spend more time. We would like to improve the environmental aspects such as ventilation and lighting in residential areas where more people are staying. We will renovate vacant houses, whose existence has become a problem in recent years, to create semi-exterior spaces and turn them into stores. By doing so, a gap will be created in the dense residential area, allowing light and wind to enter and making the store and its surroundings a comfortable space. We believe that the ideal state of the next generation of stores is to have a positive impact on the surrounding area by opening a store.

Title

Book's-Sound

Award Winners

Miki Yamada / Tokyo Denki University

concept

The concept is "listening to a book." Recently, there is a demand for applications that allow you to listen to books while commuting or cooking. The good thing about these is that people who get sleepy when reading printed text can read books and can save time. The trend of moving away from printed text has become a hot topic, so these applications are attractive to busy people. On the other hand, the bad thing about applications is that they are difficult to use for children and elderly people who cannot own or use digital devices, and it is difficult to hear the audio and concentrate, and the information does not penetrate the mind just by listening. In addition, libraries and bookstores are the facilities related to books today, but all of these places are "places to read books quietly alone." There are no places where you can share your impressions of the books you have listened to with people who are there at the same time, and there are no community places where you can talk about books. So we thought about creating a store that makes use of this function. It is a place where a device will read aloud to small children when they stop by, a place where a book will be read to you by the voice of your favorite idol or voice actor, or a place where you can listen to a book while chatting with friends and share your impressions on the spot. The design concept was to create a place where people could share books.

Title

AR Shopping Street Connecting People
- Next-generation shopping district and store design that encourages reconnection with the local community -

Award Winners

Akari Nakajima / Kitaba Landscape
Yuto Mochizuki / ASUKAYAMA CHERRYBLOSSOMS

concept

Due to restrictions on movement, people's connections have shifted from real to digital space. This change has taken away opportunities for spontaneous and real communication, weakening the ties of local and intergenerational communities. This has led to social isolation and the loss of tradition and culture, which has had an impact not only on individuals but also on the decline of the appeal of the entire region. Given this background, we believe that the next generation will have a latent need for a place to connect. In this proposal, we consider utilizing shopping streets and their stores to provide this place. These were once central places that formed local and multigenerational communities, and we believe they can be reused as places to connect. However, there is also the problem that shopping streets are steadily declining. Therefore, in order to revitalize shopping streets, we propose ideas for shopping streets and stores that allow people to feel the three elements of "comfort," "excitement," and "locality," and incorporate a system of "connecting people" with AR glasses into the shopping street. In this way, we propose a next-generation shopping street and next-generation store that aims to promote local and multigenerational communities again and rebuild the opportunities for real communication that were lost due to restrictions on movement.

Title

Project to Maximize Happiness at the Time of Purchase

Award Winners

Eina Murakami / Eishin Co., Ltd.

concept

In contrast to impersonal purchasing behavior, we propose a flattering AI customer service using RFID and directional speakers. The satisfaction of consumers choosing an item, and the joy of having a product made by a producer chosen, are experiences that have seemingly faded due to IT, but they can be brought back to everyday life with an AI that reacts to human actions and flatters people.

*Affiliation as of 2023