Kurita Innovation Hub
Technology Innovation Center (TIC) & Technical Education Center (TEC)

The Kurita Innovation Hub is a new R&D center for Kurita Water Industries, which operates a water treatment business and aims to create innovations to solve social and industrial issues. Our challenge was to create Japan's first “zero water building” (ZWB) to improve the global water environment.
Akishima City in Tokyo, where the project is located, uses only groundwater as its source of tap water. By creating a ZWB, we aimed to achieve the synergistic effect of conserving the water cycle in the region. Groundwater usage is reduced by reusing water via water treatment facilities. Simultaneously, rainwater that infiltrates the site is returned to the groundwater. This creates a continuous circulation of water resources and reduces environmental impact. In the process of reusing water, wastewater separation is optimized, the size of water treatment facilities is reduced, and the treatment process is shortened, enabling both a high water recovery rate and low-energy operation.
While water depletion and security are becoming global issues, in Japan, high levels of water consumption, difficulty of infrastructure renewal, and marine pollution due to the combined sewage system are seen as problems to be addressed. We expect that this ZWB will be the first step toward finding architectural solutions to these water issues.