Nowadays, globalization, informatization and diversification of individual values are progressing worldwide. In Japan, population decline, aging, and low birthrate are also progressing rapidly. In addition, we are facing various problems such as economic, educational and regional disparities as well as their recurrence. Furthermore, large-scale natural disasters occur almost every year. These social and environmental problems appear in the cities we live in. The urban space reflects the state of our society, including its history and culture. Personal memories and experiences are also closely linked to the urban space through various places.

Toyama City has been designated as a “SDGs Future City” by the Japanese government and selected as one of the “100 Resilient Cities” by Rockefeller Foundation for the implementation of “Compact City Policies”. As a Toyama-based university lab, we explore how to make a city sustainable, with the concept “think globally, act locally.”

The fact that various problems are linked, directly or indirectly, to the appearance of cities means that it is possible to make our society better by designing urban spaces. We try to improve our society through designing urban infrastructure, public spaces and communication among people. We regard technologies, systems and methods to improve urban spaces as issues of “design management” in environmental design. Our mission is to research and practice activities about urban design management from both hardware and software perspectives.