Camp for Designing the Future 2020

SFC will be holding the Camp for Designing the Future again this year. This “camp” is not a “camping trip” in the traditional sense, but an environment where you can learn the importance of utilizing your abilities and experience on-site and translating your creative ideas into action. The approach to various problems that SFC advocates for requires the ability to execute. While the “camp” is prepared in advance, the specific activities are designed improvisationally according to the situation on the ground. We know from experience that flexible ideas and flashes of insight are born in unexpected ways and often in informal settings. In that sense, the “camp” is also likely to provide many hints for understanding communication between people. In the first place, both “campus” and “camp” are derived from the Latin word “campus,” which means “a flat place or open field.” The essence of intellectual activity at a university is to share a special time through free and open discussion. The Camp for Designing the Future is a place where diverse knowledge and wisdom collide, allowing participants to experientially consider the “ability to execute” that will lead to the future. Let's work our minds and bodies busily with the friends we gather with at the “camp” and take another step toward the future.

The Camp for Designing the Future began in 2011. The workshops, which are held together with faculty and current students, are an intensive experience that cannot be had at open campus mock classes or campus tours. We have held it every summer, but this year, due to the impact of the new coronavirus, we were unable to proceed with preparations as usual. Even so, there were many voices calling for it to be held, and we have decided to hold it online.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Camp for Designing the Future. It is also the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies. At this “milestone” timing, we would like to think with all of you once again about “what a campus is.” We have planned five workshops for the day. Each is an attempt to grasp “what a campus is” from its own perspective.   

・The SFC 30th Anniversary Website: Camp for Designing the Future Archive is now available.

・Dec. 1: News report on the event has been posted.   

・Nov. 9: Notification of results has been sent.

Applicants will receive an email at their registered address, so please check. If you do not receive the email, please contact us at the address below.

・Oct. 30, noon: Applications for the Camp for Designing the Future 2020 are now closed.

Applicants should have received a confirmation email titled “SFC Camp for Designing the Future Participation Registration Received” at their registered address. Please check for it. If you have not received the confirmation email, please contact us at the address below.

・Oct. 16: Applications for the Camp for Designing the Future 2020 are now open. [Deadline: Friday, October 30, noon]

Please apply from the application form for each workshop (the button below each workshop's overview). You can only apply for one workshop. Notification of results is scheduled for early November.

Please be aware that you are responsible for creating and compressing files. We cannot respond to technical inquiries or consultations.   

・Oct. 6: The Camp for Designing the Future 2020 will be held online. Details about the workshops and application methods will be announced on this website at a later date.

Japan is a country with an extremely high number of natural disasters caused by earthquakes and torrential rains. Disasters can occur anywhere in Japan, as seen in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the Great East Japan Earthquake, and more recently, the torrential rains of July 2018 and the heavy rains in the Kuma River area of Kumamoto Prefecture in June 2020. While it is impossible to eliminate the earthquakes and torrential rains that cause disasters, it is possible to reduce the damage by preparing for such phenomena. However, it is not easy to imagine a disaster you have never experienced and take concrete measures. In this workshop, we will consider how to convey the dangers of disasters and the importance of disaster preparedness to those close to you.

Those who wish to participate in the workshop will be asked to choose a person close to them to whom they want to convey the dangers of disasters and the importance of countermeasures. They will then consider how to convey this information, taking into account the person's living environment, family structure, and organizational structure. On the day of the workshop, after receiving lectures on torrential rains and earthquakes and an introduction to specific examples of how to convey information, participants will be divided into several groups. In each group, they will share the tasks assigned in advance and discuss better ways to convey the information.   

Satoko Oki (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Yoshiaki Miyamoto (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)

Approx. 20 people

Regions have abundant resources such as rich nature, beautiful scenery, history, and culture. In community building, the path forward is opened by making full use of these resources. To do so, it is not enough to be bound by whether resources exist or not; a proactive stance of turning things into resources, in other words, “resourcification,” is required. Rather than giving up because there is nothing, some regions have turned what were thought to be weaknesses into resources and regained their vitality. So, specifically, how should we discover, develop, and disseminate resources? In this workshop, through a place of mutual learning that brings about the interaction of diverse knowledge, we will re-examine regional resources and challenge ourselves to create practical knowledge to effectively convey their appeal. We hope that you will not only have a deep experience of learning for problem discovery and resolution in the SFC style, but also develop an interest in community building.

Yoshinori Iimori (Faculty of Policy Management), Gen Miyagaki (Faculty of Policy Management)

Approx. 20 people

This is a workshop where you move your hands to make things, try using them, or imagine using them.

We are surrounded by many things and live by using them to create our environment. The things we use include mass-produced products from factories and items handmade one by one by someone. It's not just about things made by experts; around us, there are many things made by the people who live there, including ourselves. Let's look inside our homes. Are there any handmade shelves or boxes, not just store-bought ones, made to suit our needs? If you observe the area around your house or the town, you will find many things handmade with the ingenuity and creativity of the residents.

In this workshop, you will challenge yourself to create simple tools and devices with specific functions by combining things you have on hand, while imagining the scenes where they will actually be used at SFC. Instead of buying new materials and tools, you will be asked to reuse or combine things that are already around you. Let's let our imagination soar to picture the yet-unseen SFC and the creativity to combine things to create new meanings.   

Hajime Ishikawa (Graduate School of Media and Governance), Kazunori Takashio (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)

Approx. 12-15 people

Since its founding, SFC has prided itself on its communicative multilingual education and has achieved steady results. Thirty years later, times have changed dramatically. Automatic translation technology by AI has improved, and we are now in an era where we can communicate with speakers of different languages through machines without having to learn a foreign language from scratch. Language learning solely for the purpose of acquiring language as a communication tool may become outdated in the future. In such an era, what is the meaning for university students to learn a language? Also, with the expansion of online classes since this spring, many people have had to face new forms of language learning that are adapted to online environments. While solving various problems, we are also being pushed to expand the possibilities of new learning styles that are different from before and to leverage their merits. What should the future of language learning be for SFC, and for yourself? For what purpose, and how should we learn languages? Let's think and design together. In the workshop, after several faculty members involved in language education at SFC share their cutting-edge language education initiatives, we will break into small groups to discuss the future of language learning.

You Nonaka (Faculty of Policy Management), Mamoru Fujita (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Takahiro Kunieda (Faculty of Policy Management), Kaoru Yamamoto (Faculty of Policy Management), Wakana Baba (Faculty of Policy Management), Ari Petrus Santoso (Faculty of Policy Management)

Approx. 20 people

Our daily lives are regulated by schedules and calendars. Commuting to school, classes, and club activities all had set times and places, which was the “norm.” However, due to the impact of the new coronavirus, various things have changed over the past six months. We couldn't go out or move around as we wished, which changed how we interact with people and use our time. At first, you may have been confused by the changes, but as you gradually got used to them, some of you may have found it more comfortable.

By the way, when various things are strictly decided, you start to want to rebel a little. When many things are regulated, “saboru” (skipping out) becomes a tempting and thrilling act. And by skipping out, you might accidentally have a good experience or discover something new. In this “Sabori” workshop, as our daily time is being reorganized, we will think about how the meaning of “saboru” will change. If various activities go online and the time to commute to campus disappears, we can no longer take detours or get off midway. This is a workshop to freely talk about the future of our relationship-building, such as communication and gatherings, triggered by “saboru.”   

Fumitoshi Kato (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Yujun Wakashin (Graduate School of Media and Governance)

Approx. 20 people

If you have any questions about the Camp for Designing the Future, please contact us by phone or email.