The newly completed satellite lab in Sendai, apart from the Tokyo studio, is not a space for meetings or office work. It is a space dedicated to creating and thinking, with the goal of approaching some future unknown. Just like our childhood memories of seeing faces or clouds in the patterns and stains in the ceiling, this space was designed to spark the imagination of each individual. In contrast to a space for a set purpose, like a typical office, the space is filled with opportunities to invite something new, and to break away from conventional thoughts. 

With this in mind, objects are arranged in the space like stains on a ceiling. Each seemingly bare object has, in fact, a purpose, as a table, shelf, or chair. However, by minimizing human intervention in the materials, the objects seem to exist ambiguously between bare material and deliberate object. The confrontation with such unstable existence evokes imagination, just like the stained ceiling. Things may look different today and tomorrow, and of course there is no right answer—the space is meant to invite and affirm such phenomena. Pursuing a logical goal may take away people's creativity at times. 

The role of design should be to bring out human creativity as much as it is to provide efficiency and ease to the user. The essence of this lab, where uncontrollable time wavers between set goals and unknowns, is perhaps analogous to life in the Tohoku-region, where people coexist with uncontrollable forces of nature. The materials and construction methods used for these “plain” objects actively draw from those native to the region where the lab is located. For example, the thatch used for the wall that functions as a bookshelf was inspired by the earliest Japanese thatched-roof material and construction method. As is the case with thatched roofs, many of these natural materials have been replaced by industrial materials today. Sendai is located in the Tohoku region of Japan. 

Compared to urban areas such as Tokyo, the Tohoku region is a place where the history of people’s coexistence with nature is still very much alive. By giving new interpretations to natural materials and construction methods that are at risk of disappearance in these regions, the space also becomes a place to think about the indigenous nature of materials and sustainability. The goal of this space is to generate hypotheses that enrich the future by sharing “time to ponder” with our clients and other collaborators, as well as those from independent research projects.