DENSO Corporation PROJECT

DENSO Corporation Denso Agri Lab

Outline

Question the question itself, new point of contact between producers and consumers and ecosystem

Loftwork runs parallel to its clients and helps them to create new value in the future. We start by questioning the structures, systems, and rules which are considered typical for this process. Occasionally, when the client feels that they have a problem, we begin the project by questioning the very issue which the client wants to improve.

However, our work is not merely deriving the correct answers to everyone’s problems.

Our role is to ask, “Should we really start with this problem?” then, in regard to that problem, ask, “If we pursue this, what kind of new value will be created?” It is very important to us to consider, along with our clients, whether or not the future we are headed for is the correct one.

Denso, in addition to being an automotive part maker/supplier, is conscious of the great challenge of creating a future of better lifestyles, and we strive to offer value to society. Starting from that task, as part of our internal efforts to depict the future society which we are striving toward, our projects related to food and agriculture were born.

Starting in 2015 November 21, Loftwork has provided continuous support for the「Denso Agri Lab」, a project with the themes of food and agriculture, designing new interactions and ecosystems for producers and consumers. We perform construction and information transmission for Websites to serve as platforms, and we make efforts to plan events and community design, focusing on FabCafe, with the themes of food and agriculture.

プロジェクト概要

Support Details
Choosing A Concept
Teaser Website Construction
Planning/Implementing Events at FabCafe
Information Transmission via Web
Project Period
November 2015~
Related Services
Client: Denso Corporation
Loftwork Project Manager: Shiho Ito
Loftwork Creative Director: Miho Saito
Loftwork Producer：Hajime Matsui
FabCafe Director：Kotaro Iwaoka
Writer：Youko Igakura
photographer：KitchenMinoru / Kazuhiko Hakamada

Outputs

Teaser Website Construction ─ Project/Community Platform

Project promotion and construction of a teaser Website as an activity archive platform. The pre-site and the main site (before and after construction) will transmit the project’s appeal in two stages, fomenting a community on the Web.

Denso Agri Lab Web site

Detail

Process

Choosing A Concept─ Project Members gathered in Hida Province and held an ideation workshop

The Denso Corporation’s technology planning department DP-Robotics Chief Naoya Kato (Photograph, foreground)/Section Manager Toshiki Isogai (next to Kato)/Saki Ishikawa (Photograph, far left)

Project members from both companies met at a location in Hida and held a residential ideation workshop and farm observation. Via the themes of food and agriculture, they searched for a vision of the future (goals) and a lingua franca (concepts) for the project.

─ Why Hida?
At the location in Hida, Loftwork, along with Hida-based partner the Tobimushi Corporation, established Bears Dance in the Hida Forest Corporation (also known as Hidakuma)」FabCafe Hidaa combined public and private concern which strives to make innovations in forestry. Using these two networks and platforms, they hold concentrated residential ideation workshops, building a team through their common experience.

Planning/Implementing Events at FabCafe

We implement events as places where consumers come into contact with Denso Agri Lab projects and give birth to ideas. Increasing the number of touchpoints between Denso and consumers, with the purpose of meeting partners for creating our potential future, we held a Meet Up event using our FabCafe platform.

「Table to Farm / Farm To Table」, we greeted various practitioners engaged in the food and agriculture industries as guests and, rather than telling them our answers to the question of “What is delicious?” we searched for answers alongside them.

DENSO CORPORATION Technology Planning Department DP-Robotics Section Manager Toshiki Isogai

Also, at XPD 2016, a conference on “Personal Experience Design” organized by Loftwork, project members Isogai (from Denso) and Iwaoka (from Loftwork) gave speeches. At the second day’s workshop, with the theme of “Future Values and Design,” all the participants held an ideation session on food-related sustainable ecosystem design.

Information Transmission via Web

We publish opportunities to think about food and agriculture created through interviews with various people taking up the challenge of creating the future and connecting technology and science with food and agriculture, as well as our most recent Case Study, on the Web.