Semba starts furniture design through an Ethical Design strategy―Installation at Tokyu Land Corporation’s student accommodation “Campus Village”
Semba Corporation (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Daisuke Yashima; hereinafter “Semba”), a company striving to realize a sustainable society through space design, starts its original furniture production based on the principles of Ethical Design*. The furniture would be installed inside the “Campus Village Osaka Kindai-mae” project (hereinafter “the residence”), a shared student accommodation developed by Tokyu Land Corporation (Head Office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Masashi Okada).
*Ethical Design is a design philosophy that aims resolving numerous social issues through Semba’s sustainable circulation system.
1. Project Brief
The following 3 efforts were made in the project.
❶ Utilization of domestic timber to stimulate the forest cycle
❷ Utilization of waste materials and renewable resources to encourage resource circulation
❸ Providing opportunities for users to experience resource circulation
❶ Through cooperation with Hidakuma inc. (Head Office: Hida-shi, Gifu; Presidents: Kotaro Iwaoka, Takeshi Matsumoto), we produced furniture using hardwood from the Hida region. By intentionally using wood that is deemed unmarketable as a furniture material in the existing wood distribution as a design feature, we provided new values to the forest resources and stimulated the forest cycle.
❷ Through cooperation with Monofactory Co. Ltd., a consulting company that promotes establishing a sustainable society, we produced upcycled furniture from waste materials that finished their original function or purpose. Efforts were made to revive waste into new furniture by taking advantage of its original appearance and form, such as upcycling cable reels from the construction site into tables.
❸ We turned the entire First-floor common space into a virtual gallery and exhibited the stories behind the creation of furniture described in ❶ and ❷ to visualize the background of its creation. By showing the back stories of creation that are usually hidden, we provide opportunities for residents and visitors to the virtual gallery to experience and learn about resource circulation.
Semba has exercised its Ethical Design philosophy for this residence and created a common space where the students could relate to the “circular economy” through their everyday lives. We aimed to raise awareness of sustainability among every student and visitor through spatial design, furniture fabrication, and design supervision of the virtual gallery that visualized the stories behind creation.
■About CAMPUS VILLAGE Osaka Kindai-mae
Campus Village is a student housing developed by Tokyu Land Corporation and is managed and operated by National Students Information Center Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Kyoto-shi, Kyoto; President: Katsuhiro Yoshiura) of Tokyu Fudosan Holdings Group.
Please see the website for details of the Campus Village.
Address: 5-1-48, Tomoi, Higashiosaka-shi, Osaka
Access: 12 minutes walk from Mito station of Kintetsu railway Osaka line 9 minutes walk from Kindai University
Total number of rooms: 251
■ About Ethical Design
We, Semba Corporation have been exerting ethical activities since 2021. We promote the idea of Semba Ethical Design Thinking, where everyone at Semba is encouraged to start by “Rethinking” all of the space design processes from the perspective of compassion towards people, local communities, and the global environment. From 2022, we set Creating Future Friendly Spaces as our corporate mission.
＞Please visit below for Semba’s resource circulation-based renovation service, CIRCULAR RENOVATION®.
