Masamichi Ueta MDes ’18, a first-class registered architect in Japan, and Takafumi Inoue, AICP, MUP ’18 co-founded KUROFUNE Design Holdings upon their graduation from GSD in 2018 with the aim of implementing socially meaningful designs and products that contribute to the public. U Share is one of the key businesses that the company has been developing since its foundation.

U Share, an international student dormitory in Japan, attempts to design an optimal living environment that integrates living space and learning space, in which students, the next generation of global talents, can live together.

In the long run, U Share contributes to building a society where diverse people thrive, through nurturing global talents who have a global perspective, respect diversity, and work on solving social problems. These goals will be accomplished by designing an environment where residents can come into contact with diverse people and values, and have the opportunity to “share” their dreams and initiatives on a daily basis.