The end of the school year was busy as always. Two new members (officially joining us from April 2020 (but have already become part of co+labo life), Yurino Oguri and Reina Sasaki have defended their final 3rd year Design Projects (above).

co+labo radović    co+labo members finishing 2019-20 with good Design&Research projects   

Yuki Mori, Muxi Yang and Koki Suzuki (below with Darko) have graduated with presentations of their Research Theses ...

co+labo M2 students have completed their Masters Degree, with a series of well-developed projects. Mei Morimoto and Shohei Yamashita are leaving with Double Degrees KTH Stockholm-Keio and Politecnico di Milano-Keio. 
The final touches were defences of Mei-san's investigation of “The Relationship Between Shop Facades and Affordances in Tokyo - A Case Study of Jiyugaoka, with Comparisons with Stockholm”, and Shohei-san, “Adaptive reuse of World Cup Legacy and its potential environmental improvement in the megacity – A Case study of a football project in New York”.

Equally successful were Xuan Yang and her in depth analysis and creative presentation of “Spatial Quality and Place Attachment - A Case Study of Izakaya Culture in Central Jiyugaoka”, Yumi Ishii, and “The Quality of Pedestrian Spaces along Urban Canals - A Case Study of Meguro River”, Shun Kato's “Spatial Analysis of Public access in Coastal City - A Case Study of Fujisawa and Kamakura Area", Norimi Kinoshita's meticulous inquiry into “The impacts of urban morphology and intensity of use on the quality of urban life - A Case Study of railway station hiroba spaces of Tokyo” and Masahito Motoyama's “The POPS in High-Dense Urban Areas, and Their Capacity to Contribute to Public Interest - A Case Study of Daimaruyu Leading Business City”.

Warm co+labo congratulations and best wishes for their forthcoming professional lives.

co+labo radović      co+labo's Takasu Yukie completed her MastersThesis@AA in London     

Yukie Takasu has completed her Masters Thesis at Architectural Association in London, and will be returning to co+labo her ambitious plan with another Masters Degree at Keio University. In this brief summary she explains her AA project entitled Multi-level Ecology (see images below) as "an exploration of multi-leveled open spaces in high-density urban environments. The lack of public spaces in contemporary cities is a pressing concern as it correlates to physical and mental illnesses and social isolation. An alternate circulation system at higher levels is proposed to enhance urban connections where the population density increases vertically. The research aims to incorporate more than the provision of spaces, by enhancing programmatic variation, where once isolated institutions - residential, commercial, office, leisure, now overlap through these spaces, creating multi-layered opportunities in the urban area. Exploring varying sets of urban conditions, this research proposes an integrated response that generates spatially diverse public spaces.

The work is contextualized in the urban area of Sai Ying Pun located in the city of Hong Kong. The high-rise high-density urban fabric of the city is characteristic of the issues of social deprivation. Additionally, the research deals with seasonal climatic conditions and local hydrological problems of self-sustainability and flooding that are pertinent to Hong Kong.
A multi-scalar approach incorporated in addressing the problem at the urban as well as the local scale establishes the need to accommodate a layered network of recreation, culture, and wellness." 

Congratulations to Yukie-san and - a warm welcome home to  our co+labo senpai.

co+labo radović          co+labo's Mei Morimoto awarded Masters Degree at KTH Stockholm     
With pleasure we are taking one news from the closing days of 2019 into 2020. co+labo's Mei Morimoto has completed her Masters Degree at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of Architecture, which was awarded to her in the ceremony that was held in her favourite building, the Stockholm City Hall (above). She is now preparing defence of the second part of her Double Degree, which is schedules for early February at Keio. She will be joined by our Shohei Yamashita, who also needs to complete his Double Degree - with Politecnico di Milano. Sincere co+labo congratulations!

co+labo radović  2OO9-2O1O-2O11-2O12-2O13-2O14-2O15-2O16-2O17-2O18-2O19-2O2O  
                              We have entered a significant, twelfth year of co+labo@Keio University! The plans are being drafted, discussed ...

co+labo radović    to all co+labo associates, friends, colleagues we wish a Happy New Year

co+labo radović      co+labo's Amami Iwata and Yuki Mori awarded@Haseko Competition    

And ... here is the proof that at co+labo the year never finishes with the end of the year party. The news has just arrived that our Amami Iwata and Yuki Mori have received the Second Award at Haseko Residential Design Competition. The composition of the Jury tells all about the importance and quality of this contest. The Chair was Kengo Kuma, and the members included Kumiko Inui, Sousuke Fujimoto, Motoko Tanaka and Kazuo Ikeda (left). 

The Theme of the competition was a multi-generation and multi-national housing complex. This proposal, entitled 部屋も歩けば人にあう - "When the room walks, it meets people".  Mori-san explains how they "proposed movable small rooms for each of the houses which make it possible for people to post their daily life like SNS. The rooms personified by their user would help interactions and span difficulties arising from diverse cultural backgrounds, with spaces capturing diverse characters of their residents. This movable rooms would also be able to venture into urban space, seeking the best space to stay. That would help discover the capacity of vacant urban spaces, such as parkings, streets and parks for acquiring new quality, in addition to multi-generational and multinational usage of these wandering rooms." The project will be published in the 2020 February issue of "Shinkenchiku" magazine.

Warm co+labo congratulations to Iwata-San and Mori-san!

co+labo radović    co+labo farewells 2O19 with bōnenkai party+welcomes new students   

The annual co+labo "forget-the-year-party" farewelled the 2019. Although "forget the year" is a literal translation of bōnenkai" the year behind us was certainly not a year that will, of should be easily forgotten. The list of colaboradović.blogspot entries for 2019 includes successful PhD theses defences and starts of new projects, hosting guest lecturers and delivering guest lectures at other places in Tokyo and abroad, organisation and participation in symposia and conferences in Japan and overseas, double-degrees and international workshops and the very important Comprehensive Design Workshop, which ended up with a highly successful exhibition, symposium and lectures - in organisation and delivery of which co+labo was - Keio Architecture. In 2019 we have made the strongest collective push towards helping the oldest university in japan establish a discrete graduate programme in architecture and urbanism. All those activities and achievements add up (in our collaborative + ++ +  ++++ + manner) to a great year, which should never be forgotten 2019. The bōnenkai was also an opportunity for everyone to meet our new two members - Yurino Oguri and Reiya Sasaki (who, in bōnenkai tradition, helped make excellent food for their senpai). Welcome+頑張ってください!

Sincere co+labo thank you go to all of our colleagues, friends and associates in Japan, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Serbia, UK, Sweden, Australia, Ecuador, Thailand, Serbia, Spain who have variously joined in, helped share and deliver those projects and whom we are planning new projects for the years to come.  

co+labo radović    co+labo's OB get First Prize for the best Thesis at Politecnico di Milano   

Politecnico di Milano has formally awarded the prizes for Best Graduation Thesis, Migliore Tesi in Ingegneria Edile-Architettura at their campus in Secco, and the winners were three co+labo+PoliMi boys - Akitaka Suzuki (who is also first Keio-Polimi Double Degree laureate), Nicoló Panzeri and Enrico Sterle (who have both spend a semester at co+labo). Aki-san went back to Milano to join the ceremony at his second Alma Mater and for reunion with friends (including some from EMBT, where he did his internship) and professors. Local Lecco News have informed the broader audiences about this, well-known  and highly regraded award.
The Jury explained the reasons for choosing Aki, Nikoló and Enrico's design-research project, summarising how " the work is characterised by highly unique theme, and it achieved an uncommon maturity and design complexity. In particular, the strong visual/graphical communication ability and analysis on its production and realisation aspects are underlined."
co+labo congratulations to Aki, Nikoló and Enrico and their supervisors, including Gabriele Masera (at the selfie below).

co+labo radović     co+labo research projects accelerate towards Masters+UG completion  

As work on various co+labo research projects accelerates towards final presentations at the end of the school year, Keio captures the moment by taking official photos of all research laboratories. Above is co+labo, as of 26.11.2019. Top row: Jumpei Kawamoto, Sanja Žonja, Ivan Filipović, Xuan Yang; Mid row: Yuki Mori, Yumi Ishii, Muxi Yang, Nikolaj Salaj, Paolo Turčić, Amami Iwata; First row: Shinichi Nishibori, Koki Suzuki, Masahito Motoyama, Darko Radović, Norimi Kinoshita, Shun Kato. Absent (in action elsewhere) were: Satoshi Sano, Mei Morimoto, Shohey Yamashita and Hiroki Shigemura.

Besides projects at PhD level (Sanja Ronja, Satoshi Sano and Ivan Filipović), current individual projects at co+labo are:

      Masters Theses 2019

Yumi Ishii, The quality of pedestrian spaces along urban waterways - A Case Study of Meguro River   

Shun Kato, The role of tourism in sustainable urban development of urban coastal areas - A Case Study of Fujisawa

Norimi Kinoshita, The impact of urban morphology and intensity of use on the quality of urban life - A Case Study of railway station hiroba spaces of Tokyo

Mei Morimoto, The relationship between shop facades and affordances in Tokyo - A Case Study of Jiyugaoka, with partial comparisons with Stockholm

Masahito Motoyama, The POPS in high-density urban areas, and their capacity to contribute to public interest - A Case Study of Daimaruyu

Shohei Yamashita, Adaptive reuse of World Cup Legacy and its potential environmental improvement in the megacity - A Case Study of a football stadium project in New York

Xuan Yang, Spatial quality and place attachment - A Case Study of izakaya culture in central Jiyugaoka

      Undergraduate Theses 2019

Koki Suzuki, The Creation of Marine Atmosphere in the Waterfront - A Case Study in Minato Mirai

Yuki Mori, The Morphology of Houses on Saka-michi in Central Tokyo

Muxi Yang, Impacts of Chinese elements on spatial experience of Yokohama Chinatown

      Masters 1 Theses - due 2020

Jumpei Kawamoto, Vacant Land in Minato-ku and its Spatial Composition

Shinichi Nishibori, The social potential of urban canals - typological analysis of canals in Kanda area

      Masters Exchange 

Matej Kranjc, Tokyo and its Preparedness for Disasters: The places to escape to

Nikolaj Salaj, Urban Voids and Public Realm in Tokyo

Paolo Turčić, Mediterranean Piazza and (Non)Equivalent Social Places in Japan

co+labo radović   Yang, Yamashita and Mori finalists in an International Design Competition 

A team of three co+labo students, Yang Xuang, Yamashita Shoei and Mori Yuki have decided to enter the “Sport Citadel” Competition for Young Architects, and managed to reach the finals. The competition Brief, declaring that “a sport arena is an ancient gesture […] which is balanced between function and theatricality”, asked for design of such “architectural gesture” that would be capable to generate and support high quality of urban life.

In response to that request, Xuang, Shoei and Yuki-san proposed a comprehensive green plain for the site of Mappano, as the future heart of revitalization process, which would be generated by integration of new, local sporting facilities into the daily life of the nearby city of Torino. Their project proposed reinterpretation of old civilizing processes, exploring how the sports culture could become a driving force for broader urban regeneration. In their vision, the sports will not offer only competitive and spectator-oriented games for passive audiences, but provide incentives for healthy and active lifestyles to the locals. Their arena blends into the landscape, evoking the forms of the Alps in the background. Its permeable borders both define discrete activity zones and keep them integrated, stimulating a variety of possible interactions between sport, recreation and other activities to emerge - which, significantly, include urban agriculture and farming. At architectural scale, the proposed permeable polycarbonate roof keeps the interior and natural environment directly related, while enabling substantial energy savings. In that way, the arena promises to become a place where various urban activities will melt and produce quality that reaches beyond simple local cultivation.

A truly outstanding international Jury included Peter Eisenman, Hitoshi Abe, Gianluca Mazza, Giuseppe Ferrero, Giovanni Palazzi, Dang Qun, Andrea Maffei.