March 26, 2014
Masahiro Sasaki, a 1st-year master's student at the Graduate School of Media and Governance and a member of the Shohei Matsukawa Laboratory, has impressively won the Gold Prize at the 25th JIA Kanagawa Architecture WEEK Yokohama Architecture Festival ~CROSS×CROSS~ Student Graduation Design Competition.
This competition, the "Student Graduation Design Competition" organized by The Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) Kanagawa Chapter, featured an exhibition and public judging of 34 graduation design projects from seven universities in Kanagawa Prefecture.
Mr. Sasaki also won the "Maki Prize" at the "Maki and Ito Prize," SFC's internal graduation design screening, and it is a remarkable achievement for him to have received such high praise outside the university as well.
Furthermore, he has also earned the right to participate in the JIA National Student Graduation Design Competition, going beyond Kanagawa Prefecture, and we look forward to his continued success.
Theme and Evaluation Points of the Work:
This proposal, "Public Mall," was a proposal for a system to support design by utilizing information technology, with the goal of democratizing architectural design. While it was an unconventional proposal that diverged from mainstream architectural design, his approach to the core issues was ultimately praised, leading to the award.
Comments from Masahiro Sasaki:
The graduation design competition was a valuable opportunity to reaffirm the contemporary significance of my work by comparing my proposal with those from other universities. My proposal was for a system themed around redesigning the design process for public facilities to open it up to a wider range of people, including ordinary citizens and public institutions, moving beyond designs traditionally planned by a single architect. The core of this proposal is how to build a design support mechanism within the information space and as a social system, and the broad perspectives and knowledge that SFC as a whole possesses regarding information technology, social design, and architecture itself were extremely helpful. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the faculty members who provided critiques and the junior students who helped with the production.