ABOUT US

co+labo is an Architecture and Urban Design Laboratory at Keio University, Tokyo. It is based in the Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Systems Design Engineering (Keio Yagami Campus, Building 15, 6th floor)

co+labo is the name of Laboratory Radović, among Japanese students also known as Rado-ken (ラド研)

the name co+labo points at two main aspects of our operation: 
    co
        as in “collaboration” – we work closely with a number of  
        individuals and institutions in Japan and worldwide with whom we        share interest and passion for architectural and urban design
   + labo
        as in “laboratory” - the basic cell of Japanese tertiary education,           with ethos of the workshop, where ideas get translated into action



Since 2009, when it was established, co+labo has evolved into a large network of former + current students, members + associates, colleagues + friends, celebrating our plus, the binding, collaborative symbol from our logo, which signifies  core values whicbringing us together.

In Vers une achitecture de la jouissance, Henry Lefebvre (the foundational thinker behind the ethos and praxis of co+labo) wrote about "the dignity of bearing the + sign, that of joy, happiness, enjoyment, of sensuality - the sign of life"*, thus bringing together, in a single sentence, many of the key-words which define the aims of our laboratory.  
When designing our logo, co+labo co-founder Vuk Radović added another, all-important nuance - the colour of life.
For us, as throughout the Lefebvre's theory of space, "architectural practices are to be conceptualized as transversal, that is to say cutting across ontological categories and contributing to all phases of research, programming, designing, construction, and the continuous appropriation of buildings."**

* Stanek, Łukasz, "Introduction", Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment, University of Minnesota Press, 2014 (p. lix)     
** Henri Lefebvre, Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment, University of Minnesota Press, 2014 (p30)  
co+laboradović was established at Keio in 2009 by Professor Darko Radović.

it continued efforts of one of the founding architecture laboratories at Keio University, that of Kengo Kuma, expanded new curriculum which includes urban scales, research and design-research projects and an interdisciplinary PhD programme

co+labo is involved in education, research and design-research in the fields of architecture and urban design

co+labo projects focus on quality of space across scales, and explores how that quality gets conceived, perceived+lived

co+labo actively explores the critical capacity of cultural otherness; by being a truly cross-cultural environment, with a stranger, the gaijin外人 at its helm, through its projects and everyday life, co+labo opens questions related to the topics such as cultural and disciplinary otherness, boundaries, territories, exclusion and inclusion