Landscape Design That Creates Spaces for Students
Development of Josai University Sakado Campus

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Amid a declining birthrate and various social changes, universities are being challenged to create an attractive environment not only as a place of learning but also as a place where students spend their daily lives. Josai University is striving to offer new value not found at universities in central Tokyo by leveraging the lush greenery and natural surroundings of its Sakado Campus. This project thoroughly explores how to ensure “students can feel comfortable” through landscape design, while of course prioritizing convenience, functionality, and environmental performance.

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I want to enhance the appeal of the university campus

Josai University is a private comprehensive university established in 1965. Guided by the founding principle of “Character Development Through Learning,” it places a strong emphasis on education that connects students to the real world.Approximately 7,000 students attend the Sakado Campus (Saitama Prefecture, Sakado City), which spans about 12 hectares. Many students commute from the city center—a journey taking one to two hours—and spend most of their day on campus.

Meanwhile, the surrounding area boasts a rich natural environment stretching from the Koma Hills to the Koma River, and there were high expectations for further leveraging this appeal as a venue for student activities. Against the backdrop of a declining population of 18-year-olds due to the falling birthrate, as well as changes in students’ values and learning styles, there was a need for improvements to enhance the campus’s appeal.

What Does a “Comfortable Place” Mean to Students?

Consequently, Nikken Sekkei adopted “Residential Campus” as one of the themes for campus development and undertook a reorganization of the entire campus, using the new mixed-use building project as a catalyst. Rather than the linear layout of the past, where buildings and pedestrian flow were organized along a central axis, the design shifted to a configuration that views students’ activity areas as interconnected zones, allowing them to overlap and interconnect. This created a campus network where pedestrian flow and activities naturally intersect, fostering interaction and encouraging students to linger. Furthermore, by planning architecture and landscaping as an integrated whole, we aimed to create a campus environment where students can seamlessly move between indoor and outdoor spaces.

From a structure based on axes to one in which students’ activity areas (planes) overlap

Separate pedestrian and vehicle traffic routes, and organize them so that the paths of students in the humanities and sciences faculties intersect.

Akinori Kuramoto, the landscape team leader, explains, “We worked closely with the architectural design team to create an intermediate zone—where the boundary between indoors and outdoors is as imperceptible as possible—by combining elements such as canopies, walkways, and tree-canopied spaces. Our theme for the campus was to create a space where people can find a comfortable spot no matter where they are.” To achieve this, the team prioritized striking a balance between circulation routes and spaces for lingering. Universities are characterized by multiple periods throughout the day—such as before and after classes and during lunch breaks—when foot traffic is particularly heavy. Placing benches along high-traffic pathways would not create a place where people could relax. Therefore, while maintaining a gentle connection to the main circulation routes, we created spaces where people can linger by utilizing existing trees and the natural topography to build stepped decks that provide a sense of slight distance. We also created spaces where people can feel a comfortable personal space by varying the paving materials and strategically placing benches. We also created “cool spots” using shade-providing plantings and paving with water-retaining and permeable properties, thereby designing an outdoor space where students would want to linger even during the summer. Just as rugs are placed at the feet of furniture indoors, we carefully combined materials, varying levels, and plantings in the outdoor spaces to create numerous spots where people naturally feel, “This is a place to spend time.”

"JOSAI HUB," a new gathering place for students. By incorporating a lounge area—in addition to classrooms—that anyone can freely use, it has become a space where students from both the humanities and sciences can naturally come together and interact.
© SS Co., Ltd.

Organizing the entire campus as a single landscape

The master plan features “Three Forests” that characterize the landscape of the entire campus. Near the main gate, the “Campus Gate Forest”—a symbolic shaded space that incorporates existing zelkova trees—welcomes students and forms a landscape that serves as the face of the campus. Beyond that, we positioned the “JOSAI HUB (Complex Building)—a new hub for interaction created by consolidating three former school buildings—and the “JOSAI RING,” a corridor that gently connects it to existing facilities, establishing a framework that expands students’ areas of activity across the entire campus.

Master Plan Site Plan. This illustration depicts how students’ areas of activity will expand, centered around the two new facilities, “JOSAI HUB” and “JOSAI RING.”

"When looking out over the campus from the main gate, I was conscious of creating a landscape where the greenery appears continuous and uninterrupted," says Kuramoto. Taking advantage of the building’s high transparency, the design visually connects the three “Forests”—“Campus Gate Forest,” “Inner Forest,” and “Center Forest”—so that greenery extends continuously into the line of sight, whether inside or outside the building. This extends beyond the view from the main gate; wherever one is on campus—inside or outside the building—the line of sight leads to a campus landscape where greenery and spaces for people flow seamlessly together.

In the Campus Gate Forest, centered around existing large-diameter zelkova trees, the vibrant presence of students and the lush greenery will serve as the “face of the campus.”
© SS Co., Ltd.

Inner Forest. Where bustle and greenery flow seamlessly beyond the boundaries of inside and outside
© SS Co., Ltd.

Inside “JOSAI HUB,” there is an atrium space called “Inner Forest” that is integrated with the building’s architecture. Meanwhile, inside “JOSAI RING,” we have arranged the “Center Forest,” which combines existing trees with terraces. By utilizing the undulations (micro-topography) created by the original terrain’s elevation changes, we have created spaces where people can naturally sit or linger. The “Inner Forest” and “Center Forest” are designed as two forests that echo each other inside and outside the building. Both spaces are consciously linked to the School of Pharmacy and the Medicinal Plant Garden; by planting primarily Japanese medicinal herbs at ground level, the university’s emphasis on “wellness” is extended into the landscape. Surrounded by plantings that change with the seasons, we have created an environment where students can stroll, learn, and spend their time as they please.

Center Forest promotes the infiltration of rainwater into the ground. To protect existing trees, the ground around them is preserved while undulating terrain is created in the surrounding area. The undulations and elevation differences were studied using 3D models and physical models to create a space that encourages people to linger naturally.
© SS Co., Ltd.

Underlying these plans is the concept of bringing out the unique characteristics inherent in the land and “reconnecting people with nature.” The campus has long been home to a rich natural environment derived from the local area. However, for students, this greenery remained merely a “backdrop,” and their connection to it was never particularly deep. Kuramoto and his team transformed the campus’s natural environment—an asset in its own right—into a setting where people can physically experience it as part of their daily lives. By making use of existing trees, topography, and locally sourced materials, they have integrated spaces for people with the greenery, creating a series of pleasant semi-outdoor gathering spots scattered throughout the campus. Their goal was to create “a campus where the landscape is completed by the presence of students.” The very sight of students walking, sitting, chatting, and spending their time in their own ways shapes the new campus landscape.

Corridors and canopies. These semi-outdoor spaces provide moderate protection from sunlight and rain, functioning as transitional zones that gently connect indoor and outdoor activities
© SS Co., Ltd.

From a Space for Travel to a Place to Live

The construction project was divided into two phases—Phase 1, “JOSAI HUB,” and Phase 2, “JOSAI RING”—and spanned nearly five years.Since its completion in the spring of 2025, it has become a common sight to see students eating lunch outdoors, reading, or chatting with friends. The campus, which was once merely a space for moving between buildings, has now transformed into a living environment where students spend their time as they please.

The goal of the landscape team led by Kuramoto was not to make the landscape itself the main focus, but rather to create a campus where the daily lives of each individual student shape the scenery. The landscape is brought to life by the students’ activities—this philosophy of landscape design is alive and well in the new daily life at Josai University’s Sakado Campus.

Creating a comfortable space enveloped in shade through a natural canopy that makes use of existing greenery
© SS Co., Ltd.

The intersecting corridors in the multi-level space expand the range of activities in which students can engage in various ways
© SS Co., Ltd.

A square with rounded corners was adopted as a common design element throughout the campus. The same motif was applied to paving, landscaping, benches, terraces, and other elements to create a sense of gentle continuity.
© SS Co., Ltd.

Akinori Kuramoto

Design Director, Landscape Design Group
Urban and Civil Project Department

Landscape architect. After completing graduate studies at Chiba University and the University of Edinburgh, he joined Nikken Sekkei in 2016 following a stint at E-DESIGN. Since then, he has been involved in numerous projects both in Japan and abroad to create public spaces that integrate architecture with the surrounding environment.In recent years, through park renovations, university campus reorganizations, and mixed-use redevelopment projects, he has been engaged in landscape design practices that bring out the unique characteristics inherent in each site and reconnect the past with the future, as well as people with nature.Major projects include the “Museum Tower Kyobashi” (2019), the “Amakusa City” mixed-use complex “Kokorasu” (2020), the Shibaura Institute of Technology Toyosu Campus Administration Building (2022), Josai University Sakado Campus Building No. 23 (2023), and the Central Plaza and Corridor (2025).

Akinori Kuramoto

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