Completion of the Mita Campus North Annex

2025/05/13

On March 19 of this year, the completion ceremony for the Mita Campus North Annex was held. The North Annex is located in the northwestern part of Mita Campus, about a five-minute walk from the North Gate, directly across from the Tsunamachi Mitsui Club where Tsunano-tebizaka and Shinmeizaka slopes intersect. On the day of the ceremony, the area was hit by unseasonable snow, and the ceremony took place while looking out at the snow-covered roof garden from the windows of the Innovation Lounge and Meeting Room on the 6th floor of the North Annex. During the ceremony, President Kohei Itoh presented letters of appreciation to Mr. Toru Kamura, President and Representative Director of Mitsui Fudosan Residential Co., Ltd., and Mr. Masahiko Okada, Representative Director, Executive Vice President, and General Manager of the Administration Division of Taisei Corporation. Following the owner's address by President Itoh, congratulatory speeches were given by Mr. Hiromichi Iwasa, Chair, Keio University Board of Councillors, Mr. Kamura, and Mr. Okada, followed by an address from Vice-President Okada, the director in charge. After the ceremony, a representative from the design department of Taisei Corporation provided an overview of the North Annex, followed by a tour of the facility.

The construction of the North Annex is positioned as part of the "(Tentative Name) Mita 1-chome Project (Residential Building/University Building)," a redevelopment project on the site of the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications' Postal Life Insurance Bureau building. In March 2020, the Keio University Board of Councillors approved the acquisition of the land located at Mita 1-chome, Minato-ku (the former site of Kampo Life Insurance). Conditions for the land acquisition based on the redevelopment plan included making the university building part of a single building complex with the residential building, limiting its use to university purposes, and prohibiting "wet" experimental activities involving chemicals, radioactive substances, or animals. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 7, 2022. Although behavioral restrictions were being eased due to the vaccination rollout that began the previous year, the Shinto ritual took place under "With Corona" conditions amid concerns about the arrival of the eighth wave. During the construction period, there were concerns about the impact of work-style reforms across the construction industry and nationwide labor shortages on the construction schedule. However, thanks to the efforts of the contractors and everyone involved, the main building construction was completed as scheduled at the end of December 2024, and the handover upon completion took place on February 28, 2025.

The North Annex is a six-story reinforced concrete structure with a total floor area of approximately 4,900 square meters, about twice the size of the Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration). The exterior inherits the dignified presence of the former Postal Life Insurance Bureau building along with the adjacent residential building, while featuring a sharp design that utilizes large glass surfaces, designed to harmonize with the surrounding Tsunamachi Mitsui Club and embassies. The exterior uses double-glazed glass with the highest level of solar heat removal performance in Japan, and high energy-saving performance is achieved through the introduction of high-efficiency air conditioning equipment and lighting control using motion and daylight sensors. For the interior, cedar wood harvested from the Shizugawa Forest in Minamisanriku Town—an FSC-certified forest and one of the school forests owned by Keio University—was processed with semi-noncombustible treatment and used for wall materials. School forests are located in various regions from Miyagi Prefecture in the north to Wakayama Prefecture in the south, maintained and managed with the cooperation of the Fukuzawa Ikurin Tomo-no-kai and the Forestry Mita-kai, and are utilized for education and research activities, including those at affiliated schools. The amount of carbon dioxide fixed through the use of wood in the North Annex reaches approximately 14 tons, and through design ingenuity, various sizes of cedar boards and scraps are used without waste. Furthermore, the building reflects the principles of the SDGs throughout as a structure contributing to a sustainable society, such as using recycled materials from rice husks and cypress, recycled wood decks, and signboards made from crushed and processed cedar thinning materials.

In planning the use of the North Annex, it was considered as the "Intellectual Dejima Initiative" to create new functions for Mita Campus, aiming to be a "base for research and education where faculty members centered on Mita Campus can widely participate" and a "place for serendipity that utilizes the diversity of Mita Campus," while taking into account geographical characteristics and constraints at the time of land acquisition. Furthermore, in FY2023, Keio University was selected for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Regional Core and Distinctive Research Universities (J-PEAKS) as a "research university that creates future common sense" with the pillars of "social implementation of academic knowledge" and "creation of entrepreneurs and business leaders." Consequently, the Office of Research Development and Sponsored Projects, the Office for Research Coordination and Administration, the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI), which had been dispersed across Mita Campus, were consolidated in the North Annex to strengthen the research support system.

The first floor features a lounge following the entrance, lecture rooms with capacities of 72 and 45 people in a school-style layout, and a multipurpose room that can be used as a simultaneous interpretation room. Movable partitions are installed between the two lecture rooms and the lounge, allowing the entire floor to be used as a single integrated space. These facilities are planned to be used primarily for research-related purposes, such as academic lectures, public courses, and short-term rental labs for about one week. On the second floor, two studios for online information dissemination have been established, which are expected to contribute to individual faculty research dissemination and the formation of researcher networks. Additionally, research support-related administrative organizations will be located on part of the second floor and the third floor. The fourth and fifth floors will serve as Open Research Labs, the core of the "Intellectual Dejima Initiative," providing a space for cross-disciplinary research and educational activities. On the fourth floor, KGRI's "Keio STAR (Sustainable and Transformative Actions for Regeneration)" will establish its base, operating as an "action tank" to create and practice new cultures and industries that contribute to sustainability. On the fifth floor, centered on the Graduate School of Business Administration, research and human resource development related to a wide range of entrepreneurship and management, including non-profit organizations, will take place. The sixth floor features an Innovation Lounge and Meeting Room, which will be used flexibly as a place for cross-disciplinary interaction among faculty members and as a venue for lectures and social gatherings.

The North Annex was born not only to create economic value through the fusion and dissemination of knowledge and social implementation at Keio University, but also as a place to transform the very nature of the social implementation of academic knowledge through the power of wisdom. We would like to express our deepest gratitude once again to all those involved who provided immense support from the planning stage to completion, and we sincerely hope that this facility will be utilized by many people and become a hub for intellectual exchange and creation.