午夜剧场

There are many trees on the Mita Campus. In preparation for the reconstruction of the South School Building, a large-scale transplanting of commemorative trees around the old building was carried out in the spring of 2009. Two years prior to that, the Office of Facilities and Property Management conducted a detailed survey of the condition of the trees on campus, formulated a comprehensive maintenance and management plan, and carried out campus improvements in parallel. We would like to introduce this little-known project.

In 2007, there were more than 160 trees with a trunk circumference of 50 cm or more on the Mita grounds, of which about 30 were designated protected trees by Minato City. In a typical year, landscaping contractors would perform maintenance little by little while conducting "vitality diagnoses" through visual inspections of leaves, branches, bark, and tree vigor. This was expanded to include a survey of a total of 85 trees in high-traffic areas and protected trees. As a second step, a "lodging risk diagnosis" was conducted on 40 trees where issues were identified to closely diagnose the condition of the trunks and rootstocks. Furthermore, for 13 of these trees, a third step of precision diagnosis was performed using machinery (drilling survey equipment and acoustic wave measuring instruments). These survey results were then summarized, the condition of the trees was classified into five levels, and a maintenance plan was formulated.

The trees with the most vigor-related issues were the cherry trees in Fukuzawa Park on the east side of the campus and along the boundary with the adjacent land. Somei-yoshino cherry trees are clones of a limited number of original trees, which makes them susceptible to specific diseases and vulnerable to environmental changes. Their lifespan is said to be around 70 years, and those planted after the war were just approaching that age.

In the South School Building reconstruction project, securing places for students to spend time was identified as an important theme. Therefore, the design of the new South School Building included many spaces such as lounges, group study rooms, and a student cafeteria, but it was also decided to secure space in other locations on campus. In addition to opening the Co-op cafeteria after business hours and adding more tables and benches to the courtyard, it was decided to create a place for students to relax in previously underutilized outdoor areas. For this, we received advice from the Fukuzawa Ikurin Tomo-no-kai (Fukuzawa Forestation Friends Association). The plan was to leave many deciduous broad-leaved trees and place tables and benches under them, so that nature creates a comfortable outdoor space where branches and leaves act as a natural roof to block direct sunlight in summer, and leaves fall in winter to allow warm sunlight to pour in.

The first area developed based on this policy was around the ginkgo trees on the west side of the Faculty Research Building, which was paved with permeable tiles, equipped with benches, and fitted with beverage vending machines. Next was the area of the former site of the Fukuzawa Residence, where cherry trees and other trees at high risk of falling were cut down to ensure brightness, and permeable tiles were laid on the exposed ground.

Fukuzawa Park, which was dark and damp and rarely visited by students, was thus transformed into a comfortable space for relaxation.

(Editorial Department)