Environmental Design

In this new field we design and study from a broad viewpoint. People are the“ product” of the environment and vice versa. We clarify the interactive relationship between people and environment and accordingly learn how to design and plan an environment.

The name Environmental Design is rather new in Japan, but in Western countries it has been used for over 20 years. Of course, there was and is a historical necessity for the birth of the name and for its practical and academic position. The surroundings around ourselves,“ the place” where we live, can all be called our“ environment.” But the practice and learning of the design field has so far been executed by subdividing it into Interior Design, Architectural Design, Urban Design, Landscape Design, and so on. These subdivisions, however, fail to grasp the totality of our“ living space” which is essentially complex and diverse, because present society has recently changed so much and so rapidly owing to technological development, information revolution and a shift in industrial structure. So the field of “Environmental Design” was born in searching for such a total form. To put it concretely, the various kind of“ spaces,” from the interior to the exterior, like streets, squares, parks, districts, cities and regions (including natural resources like fields, mountains, lakes, rivers etc.) are our objects. We pursue the creation of spaces by treating those comprehensively and systematically where people can live comfortably. In other words,“ Environmental Design” is a field for learning synthetically how to create spaces for“ human recovery” today.

Faculties

Katsutoshi Nonaka

Professor / Urban Design

Tsuyoshi Hashimoto

Associate Professor / Architectural and Urban Environmental Design

Kazuyoshi Watari

Associate Professor / Environmental Design

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