Japan 2021Global OS Long Table & Roof
This is a social experiment to explore new lifestyles post-Covid, initiated by President Minoru Yoshikawa of Toho Leo, who resonated with Kuma’s interview in the August 2020 issue of Harvard Business Review, “Now is the time to rewrite the operating system of the Earth.”
The project investigates how to escape the enclosed physical and social “boxes” of big cities, by creating connections to rural areas, such as Higashi-kawa in Hokkaido, Nakatsu in Osaka, Chichibu-ga-hama in Kagawa. More specifically, we conducted experiments that blur the intersection between real and virtual within the network of new working spaces.
The Element is a portable system that can be used outdoors to create instant working/meeting/dining spaces. The system “elements” consist of a membrane sewn to 5 cm to 15 cm wide wooden boards, giving it both soft and robust properties. By combining a table made of the “elements” with digital tools, it makes it possible to gather around the same meeting table in distant locations in a sense of presence and perspective unlike a typical online meeting.
