[Sodegaura City, Chiba x Chiba University] Project to create a 'Special Place for Junior and Senior High School Students' kicks off!

Project Kickoff. The Hiraoka Community Center and the Junichi Ito Laboratory of the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Chiba University, are collaborating on a joint research project to develop a 'special place for junior and senior high school students' within the center. At the first workshop, which served as the project kickoff, architect Kenichi Kurosawa (representative of kurosawa kawara-ten) was invited as a special advisor. Under the theme 'Giving shape to ideas with architectural models!', participants explored and surveyed the community center and expressed their favorite spaces using human-shaped parts and styrofoam parts in architectural models. We look back on the workshop, which was attended by six students from Hirakawa Junior High School and seven Chiba University students from the laboratory, including Professor Junichi Ito. *Junichi Ito Laboratory: Practices and researches the creation of places for children in local communities, focusing on architecture, spatial design, and workshops. Project Explanation. In the first workshop, participants learned about the facility and surveyed it together to think about their 'ideal way to spend time' there. Professor Ito, who explained the project, said, 'Your ideas will be incorporated into the design, so please look forward to it.' Self-introductions. Participants shared their preferred names, transportation and time taken to reach the center, lunch, and reasons for participating. Some groups had lively discussions about rice balls. Facility Survey. The first-floor lobby was divided into three areas, and participants explored and surveyed them in three groups. Survey results were written on Post-it notes and marked with emoticon stickers (Good!, Favorite place, A bit lacking, Surprised!). After the survey, the notes and stickers were collected and grouped on facility floor plans. Model Making. Based on the floor plans, participants used human-shaped and styrofoam parts to build spaces, incorporating what they wanted to do or what items they wanted in those areas. Project Manager's Comments. The students, experiencing the field of 'architecture' for the first time, were very lively and enjoyed the activities. We were very excited by the junior high students' free ideas and the design-rich parts. This project will take about one year. 'Sodegaura City Hiraoka Community Center x Chiba University x Junior/Senior High School Students = A special place for junior and senior high school students.' By combining our strengths, I believe we can create a wonderful, special place. We hope many students will participate. I am very much looking forward to seeing what kind of place will be created. Background. The Hiraoka Community Center has been working on creating a place for elementary school students (Hiraoka Genki Kids Project - HGK) since fiscal 2024. However, recognizing the lack of places for junior and senior high school students to spend time and the weakening of youth connections in the community, a needs survey was conducted for Hirakawa Junior High School students in September 2025. The results confirmed a high need for study spaces and places to hang out, and many students expressed a desire to be involved in creating this space. Consequently, the center decided to work on this project. Future Schedule. 2nd Workshop: Scheduled for the afternoon of Saturday, July 25, 2026. Location: Sodegaura City Hiraoka Community Center. Content: Design workshop. We will concretely think about what kind of space to create based on ideas from the first workshop. 3rd Workshop: Construction 'Let's DIY!!' (Date TBD). Completion and Exchange Meeting: Scheduled for February 2027.