AXS VISION 2030
Vision
Purpose
raison d'être
Architecture For All
AXS has a single motto passed down from its founder, Takeo Sato.
Architecture originally belongs to everyone. I believe one should not assert the author's strong individuality too much.
Rather, it should be understated, serving as a supporting backdrop for the stage played by the local climate and its citizens.
This philosophy remains unchanged and continues to be passed down vibrantly through generations in our hearts.
Since our founding in 1945, we have confronted the challenges faced by society at any given time, constantly pondering the essence of "what the public nature of architecture is," and demonstrating the ideal form of architecture.
Our goal is not to blindly chase trends, but to create architecture, cities, and environments with universal value. By carefully interpreting contexts such as temporality, regional climate, history, culture, and topography, we craft unique, one-of-a-kind architecture "found nowhere else" where citizens take center stage.
Architecture for All
Starting from "Architecture for All," with imagination and design power, we connect people, architecture, and cities,
And expanding our perspective to the global environment, we will reconnect our relationships and take on the challenge of building a better future.
Vision
Prospects for the future
A future connected by co-cycling
Kyokan is a concept in which human activities, connections with society, and the circulation of nature overlap and support one another to foster a sustainable publicness among people, architecture, cities, and the environment.
We view architecture not as a self-contained entity, but as a public stage that connects people to one another, to communities, to society, and to nature. By carefully decoding local memories, daily life, diverse social relationships, and natural cycles such as earth, greenery, water, and wind, and by reweaving them into new relationships, we envision a future where we circulate together, nurture one another, and connect as one.
The term "Kyokan" was born when four concepts—publicness, co-creation, circulation, and the environment—mutually support each other to emerge as a single philosophy.
- Public
- Connecting with society and fostering enrichment
- co-creation
- Enjoying differences and fostering empathy
- circulation
- Giving life to everything, creating the future
- Environment
- Think of the Earth, open up tomorrow
Kyokan is a philosophy in which these four perspectives overlap, circulate together, nurture one another, and open up toward the future.
Human-only sensitivity and solid logic. Driven by these two wheels, we continuously renew our ability to respond to a changing society and global environment. And we envision a future connected through "co-creation cycles."
Mission
Our mission
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Public | Connecting with society, questioning abundance
For us, "public" is not about creating public buildings themselves. We believe it is about generating a "better everyday life" within people's lives and continuously nurturing that value for the long term.
However, that value is by no means self-evident. "To whom does the public belong?" and "What constitutes prosperity?"—there is no single correct answer to these questions; rather, they must be re-examined and redefined for each project and each region.
That is precisely why we confront social changes and challenges head-on while combining the individual experiences and creativity of each and every person.
To view architecture not as something that is finished and done with, but as a "stage of relationships" where value grows through use, and to continuously question the meaning of the public.
To continue questioning the words left behind by our founder, Takeo Sato—"Architecture inherently belongs to everyone"—in the present age. That is the "publicness" we aim for. -
Co-creation │ Enjoying differences, fostering empathy
What we consider "co-creation" is not about everyone aligning on the same opinion. It is an attitude of starting from "differences" in expertise and values, transforming those very differences into a source of creativity, and searching together for better answers. As an organization to support this practice, we aim for the coexistence of a hierarchical organization and a network organization (the AXS version of a dual system). While ensuring architectural value and governance through the hierarchical organization, we expand spaces for learning and resonance that transcend departments and generations through the network organization. We will create an organization where these two systems of different natures interact and resonate with each other, functioning as a single system.
That is why we do not fear conflict. We carefully build a foundation for constructive discussion—one where people can transcend positions and titles to exchange opinions frankly and voice dissenting views with peace of mind. -
Circulation │ Bringing life to what exists, creating a future with nothing to waste
Circulation is an attitude of reorganizing current assets and wisdom as a starting point to create value for the future.
What is referred to here is not just buildings. Our assets include everything we have cultivated: the planning capability and universal design developed through public architecture, the knowledge accumulated on-site, the philosophy inherited from our founders, the expertise and culture stored within the company, and the relationships with existing stock and regional resources that we have been involved with through design.
What we depict as a "future that does not exist" consists of the following three.
Continuously renewing value through renovation and revitalization, rather than disproportionately focusing on new construction.
Expanding the expertise cultivated in public architecture into the private and operational domains, thereby expanding the very concept of publicness
Generating unique solutions through cross-disciplinary collaboration and continuing to deliver long-lasting value, all the way down to how it is used.
Not just making and ending, but circulating and reconnecting. That is our "circulation." -
Environment: Thinking of the Earth, opening up tomorrow
The "environment" as we conceive it goes beyond optimizing facilities and energy conservation. It is about rethinking people, architecture, cities, and the earth as an interconnected whole, and viewing all relationships, including local issues, as the "environment."
We also focus on the relationships generated by space. To foster understanding and empathy in the "in-between" spaces—between people, and between people and places—we carefully shape the quality of experiences, such as the nature of boundaries, places to inhabit, circulation paths, light, sound, and thermal comfort. Furthermore, we cultivate a "symbiotic circular zone" within actual architecture that restores small-scale cycles with nature through the earth.
We will envision the future of sustainable cities and architecture in harmony with the natural cycle, flexibly incorporating not only AI, DX, and environmental technologies, but also the expertise of contractors and manufacturers.
