Hiroya Tanaka: Toward the Circular Factory of the Future

2025/05/20

At the Osaka Expo, I was in charge of creating the permanent exhibition in the "Factory Area" of the Japan Pavilion. This project was selected through a public call for proposals because the research results of "circular manufacturing" based on 3D printing technology, which my laboratory has been working on for 15 years (Note), matched the worldview of "circulation" and the overall theme of "Between Lives" advocated by the Japan Pavilion.

The installation currently on display recreates how two robot-arm 3D printers manufacture and produce stools used at the venue, using plant-derived bioplastics mixed with algae as raw material. Because the way the large and small robot arms cooperate to manufacture things suddenly looked like a parent and child crane, I decided to name it "Sokaku" (Twin Cranes). Approximately 50 stools manufactured before the opening of the Expo are installed throughout the Japan Pavilion, and anyone can sit on them. Furthermore, in August, we plan to perform a "full demonstration" of manufacturing stools on-site, and are currently proceeding with preparations and studies with students from the laboratory.

The Japan Pavilion as a whole is conceived so that visitors can understand "circulation" through their five senses by completing one circuit of the circular pavilion. The "Plant Area" plays the role of expressing the transition from "waste" to "water," the "Farm Area" from "water" to "materials," and the "Factory Area," which I was in charge of, from "materials" to "objects." From the perspective of the "circular community development" that I am currently working on, this Japan Pavilion can also be seen as a "prototype for a future multi-purpose resource recovery facility."

In Japan, which is currently facing a declining birthrate, the premise that each municipality has its own incinerator and all waste is "burned" will gradually collapse. When an incinerator reaches the end of its lifespan, it will be necessary to consider other options, such as shifting the entire system, rather than simply rebuilding it. Specifically, it is conceivable that incineration facilities will be consolidated as much as possible through wide-area cooperation between municipalities, and each municipality will move toward envisioning "resource recovery" facilities that utilize the characteristics of their region instead of incinerators. To pioneer the direction of this transition toward the future, we are collaborating with the National Institute for Environmental Studies to develop a tool for municipalities to study treatment facilities.

When envisioning a resource recovery facility that utilizes regional characteristics, "multi-functionality" becomes necessary. By adding functions such as education, research (lab), incubation, gallery, accommodation, circular factory, and design rooms to the simple function of processing waste into resources, it can be reborn as an attractive new type of public facility. I hope the Japan Pavilion at the Expo will be the first step toward sharing an image of these new resource recovery facilities of the future. I also hope it will serve as a starting point for officials and stakeholders from each municipality to begin discussions on what kind of resource recovery facilities they want in their own regions and what additional functions they should combine. Various considerations have been made in this Japan Pavilion so that everyone from adults to children can enjoy it, and I am confident that it can also serve as a reference for future municipal facility planning.

Planning multi-purpose resource recovery facilities suitable for the region is the central theme of the "circular community development" I am working on at the "Co-Creation Center for 'Symbiotic Upcycling Society' Connected by Respect (scheduled for 2023–32)" under the JST "Program on Open Innovation Platform for University-Associated Startups (COI-NEXT)."

During the 184-day period, I intend to feed back the opinions and reactions of visitors into the future research activities of the "Co-Creation Center for 'Symbiotic Upcycling Society' Connected by Respect," and based on the experience at the Expo, I hope to implement further evolved forms into society for the benefit of the regions.

* In the COI project "Center of Kansei-oriented Digital Fabrication for the Extension of Human Creativity (2013–21)" by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), we developed the basic technology for a mixed-recycling 3D printer centered on domestic technology. Furthermore, at the "Co-Creation Center for 'Symbiotic Upcycling Society' Connected by Respect (2023–)" under the JST "Program on Open Innovation Platform for University-Associated Startups (COI-NEXT)" started in 2023, we further developed the technology into the "Sokaku" system using two robot arms to increase the degree of freedom in modeling.