午夜剧场

Sosokan is a building with seven floors above ground and two floors below ground, featuring a glass-walled oval (elliptical) dome structure. Due to its distinctive appearance and its location at the main entrance of the campus, it has become a symbol of Yagami-dai since its completion in January 2000. An ellipse has two focal points; these are superimposed on the university's two roles of "neutrality from society" and "commitment to society," expressing the importance of that balance as a philosophy.

The oval section features an atrium structure from the 1st to the 6th floor, where a light monument modeled after the double helix structure of DNA is installed. Designed by Motoko Ishii, this monument—along with the light messages embedded in the exterior walls, the floor outside the oval, and the 7th-floor forum—represents the presence of a university in a new era and a future where art and technology merge.

The construction plan for Sosokan was developed over many years alongside discussions on the comprehensive transformation of the Faculty of Science and Technology and the Graduate School of Science and Technology, including the reorganization of undergraduate departments (1996), the reorganization of the graduate school (2000), and the establishment of the 午夜剧场 Leading-edge Laboratory of Science and Technology (KLL) (2000). The name "Sosokan" embodies the idea of a base for fulfilling the university's mission and realizing the philosophy of this comprehensive transformation through the great human capacities of "creation" and "imagination."

KLL was born at the same time as Sosokan and has developed as an organization that promotes and supports industry-government-academia collaboration. To date, many projects have been promoted in spaces centered around Sosokan, and their results have been disseminated. Today, it has also become an educational and research base for the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Biosciences and Informatics, where faculty members and students from various fields interact.

Furthermore, Sosokan is a comprehensive building with diverse functions based on common-use areas (common places) and open spaces. On the 1st floor, the open and quiet space of the Media Center for Science and Technology (Matsushita Memorial Library) unfolds, and the Student Communication Room serves as a place for free conversation. From the 2nd floor up, there are seminar rooms and discussion spaces of various sizes, and in the basement, there is a Multimedia Room capable of hosting large-scale conferences and symposia for hundreds of people, as well as the Information Technology Center (ITC) for science and technology.

Additionally, the semi-active seismic isolation system developed by the Faculty of Science and Technology and integrated into the building's foundation is an expression of the commitment to safety and security; it prevented accidents caused by falling books and chemicals during the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The Faculty of Science and Technology celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2014. While maintaining the wish embedded in Sosokan to open up a new era, the challenge toward the 100th anniversary has begun.

(Tomohiro Ozaki, Administrative Director, Faculty of Science and Technology)