Frontier Design
Social Cooperation Research Departments

Connecting Disciplines, Creating New Possibilities

The Frontier Design Lab (FDL) is a collaborative research division dedicated to exploring design not merely as a method of form-making or aesthetic expression, but as a mode of thinking and practice for creating new value and opening new domains in an increasingly complex society.

Today, the environments surrounding society and industry are changing at an unprecedented pace, driven by developments in artificial intelligence, space, life sciences, decarbonization, and demographic transformation. In such an era of uncertainty, it is becoming increasingly difficult to envision the future as a simple extension of the present. New perspectives and methodologies are required to address challenges that cannot be solved within conventional frameworks. While deep expertise within individual disciplines remains essential, many of today’ s challenges demand the ability to move across disciplinary boundaries and identify new relationships between previously disconnected fields.

In this context, the role of design is also undergoing significant transformation. Design is no longer limited to shaping the appearance of products or services. Rather, it has expanded into a practice for identifying latent challenges and opportunities within complex situations, connecting insights across different fields of expertise, and imagining new directions. When clear answers do not yet exist, design enables the generation of hypotheses through iterative exploration across multiple perspectives. By visualizing ideas and developing prototypes, ambiguous possibilities can be transformed into tangible forms that can be examined, discussed, and tested. Through this process, design has become an increasingly important method for turning uncertainty into concrete visions and opportunities. In recent years, design thinking and methodologies have also come to play a significant role in business strategy and new venture creation.

FDL focuses particularly on the concept of “frontier design.” We believe that new value and emerging domains often arise not from within existing disciplines alone, but at the intersections where previously unrelated fields begin to connect. By bridging diverse areas of expertise—including industry, advanced technology, and cultural knowledge—new perspectives and possibilities can emerge.

At FDL, we study the very processes through which such connections are made and new possibilities are discovered. Through theoretical research as well as practical collaboration with industry and public institutions, including joint research projects, prototyping, and educational programs, we explore methods of interdisciplinary value creation. Our goal is to systematize these insights into methodologies that can be shared and applied widely across society.

Cooperation Company/Organization

Member

• 
• • Project Associate Professor
    Hideki YOSHIMOTO

  Research Area:Design

• 
• • Professor
    Kaoru KONDO

  Research Area: Art