In June 1996, several researchers in their mid-thirties, who were computer related scientists, were gathered and entrusted to make a new university from scratch. As a result, the learning environment to be introduced in this keynote was developed, and the school building was awarded the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize. The philosophy behind the university's spirit became "Open space, Open mind." This challenge was conducted on the whole university scale for eighteen years, is still in operation.
The learning environment has been designed based on collaborativity and sociality of learning. The design principles: space, activity, community, tool and designer, were extracted through analysis of practices of learning activities in the environments as well as of design process itself. The research for building a learning organization, emphasizes that focus of design should be expanded from relationship between one learner and one teacher in a classroom to relationships among learners, teachers, specialists, and people in a local community.
The university is a small-scale, public university with 240 students and 70 faculty in a local city. This design research is represented by the design of the building and three practices.
A large space in the school building, called Open Studio, with an open ceiling to the fifth level gives people a feeling of a free and shared space, and a sense of membership of the learning community. All facilities such as class-rooms, the library, gym, faculty laboratories, administration offices and all other rooms are walled by transparent glass. These are located in a single large building.
At the beginning the Project-Based Learning course as compulsory for 3rd-year students has been developed. It is not learning individually, but learning collaboratively, dealing with open problem in society. It provides an opportunity to find and solve real-world problems associated with multiple disciplines while engaging in a team and with relations with the local community is being implemented. The students in a Project-based learning "lab" address one theme per year. Faculty are also on a team and are responsible for one project.
The second practice is the development of the Intro to Information Expression course in collaboration with faculty of Design and Computer Science. The purpose of this course, which is held in the second semester of the first year, is to develop skills for planning and implementing information expression, skills for documentation, and skills for presentation. It provides the opportunity learning through fabrication.
The third practice is the Meta-Learning Lab which provides peer-tutoring or one-to-one individualized study guidance between tutor and tutee. The purpose of peer-tutoring is to encourage tutees to become autonomous learners by improving their self-study habits so that they can choose appropriate learning styles.
These environments provide learning opportunities not only for students but also for faculty and local people. These co-creation activities bring new values with three-way satisfaction. As many people as possible sharing the design principles will lead to value creation of the three-way satisfaction and a university will turn into a learning organization in society.