The Opening Ceremony at the Junko Fukutake Terrace

The café “Junko Fukutake Terrace” (commonly known as the J Terrace), built on the west side of the main gate at the Tsushima Campus, is now complete and has been opened. The café was built using a donation by Junko Fukutake, Deputy Director of the Fukutake Education and Culture Foundation. The Opening Ceremony was held on October 17th at the J Terrace.

Approximately 70 people attended the ceremony including deputy director Junko Fukutake, President Kiyoshi Morita of our university, Kazuyo Sejima from the architectural firm “SANAA”*, who designed the J Terrace, and Ryue Nishizawa. President Morita greeted everyone by stating: “People from all over the world will surely gather here at the J Terrace. I would like this university to become even more open to developments for social spaces in future.”

Deputy director Junko Fukutake also spoke, saying: “By using the J Terrace in a variety of ways, just like the Junko Fukutake Hall (J Hall), I would like everyone to have the opportunity to meet people from all different background and create miracles.” The 5 representatives then cut the ribbon and celebrated the café’s completion.

The J Terrace is an architectural structure with a beautiful concrete and glass curve, designed with the theme, “a place where people gather and dialogue is generated.” The glassed-in space projects an image of mutual connection. Established together with the “J Terrace Café” run by the Sakai Panning Corporation (Minami Ward, Okayama City), it is a public open-type terrace that everyone can freely use.

“SANAA”*
SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates) is an architect unit (specifically, an architectural firm) founded by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. In 2010, SANAA was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize - the Nobel Prize in the architectural world. Their work includes the Louvre-Lens Museum (annex of the Louvre) in France and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa.
SANAA also designed the J Hall of the Shikata campus and the pergola of the Tsushima campus for our university.