SynecO Inc. announces its participation as a partner in MoN Farm, a rooftop garden project opening on July 12, 2026 at MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives, operated by the JR East Culture Creation Foundation in Minato-ku, Tokyo.

MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives is a cultural facility operated by the JR East Culture Creation Foundation. Through exhibitions, programs, and participatory projects, it aims to create new cultural narratives rooted in place, memory, and human relationships.

MoN Farm is a new cultural experimentation site located on the rooftop of MoN Takanawa. It is designed not only as a place to grow plants, but also as a “living archive” that collects, nurtures, and records the knowledge, techniques, memories, and relationships between people and nature that should be passed on to the future.

The project brings together SynecO Inc., which supports the construction and global deployment of augmented ecosystems; mitosaya botanical distillery, which explores relationships between plants and people; and TAKANAWA HOP WAY, a local community initiative that cultivates hops together with businesses, schools, and residents around Takanawa Gateway Station.

Through this collaboration, MoN Farm will create a new field in the urban environment of Takanawa, where culture is cultivated together by people and nature.

About MoN Farm

MoN Farm is a rooftop garden located at MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives. Rather than serving simply as a farm for growing plants, it is an experimental field for passing on to the future the “practices” that emerge through relationships between people and nature, including wisdom, techniques, memories, and forms of care.

Visitors to MoN Farm will be able to encounter the rooftop garden not only as an exhibition, but as a changing ecosystem. Through activities such as planting, harvesting, tasting, observing, and conversing, they will participate in the ongoing formation of the farm and contribute to the creation of new cultural narratives.

The project does not belong to a single agricultural method or value system. Instead, it is designed as a place where diverse ways of engaging with plants and nature intersect across fields, allowing knowledge, practices, and perspectives to develop into new forms of culture.

At MoN Farm, the expertise of SynecO, mitosaya, and TAKANAWA HOP WAY will come together. By crossing their respective approaches to nature, the project will generate new cultural practices across agriculture, food, distillation, ecosystems, and local community. This process itself will be nurtured as a “living archive” to be passed on to the future.

Location: Rooftop of MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives    Opening hours: 10:00–20:00 Opening hours are subject to change. Please check the official website for the latest information.

SynecO’s Area at MoN Farm

Within MoN Farm, SynecO is responsible for a planting area that explores how urban ecosystems can be expanded toward future landscapes. The area is based on SynecO’s expertise in Augmented Ecosystems / Synecoculture and uses plant diversity, ecological network analysis, and participatory cultivation as core elements of the exhibition.

SynecO’s Role: Expanding Ecosystems Toward Landscapes to Come

Will the landscapes of Japan 100 years from now resemble the “nature” we imagine today?

Plants have long developed in close relationship with Homo sapiens. They have responded not only to environmental conditions such as climate and topography, but also to the development of human civilization, including cultivation, habitation, medicinal use, and ornamental appreciation. Through these relationships, plants have moved, diversified, and become embedded in human culture.

In an age of rapid transformation in climate, technology, and social systems, SynecO asks whether future landscapes can be envisioned as forms of adaptive diversification — landscapes that consider functional complementarity with present-day ecosystems and society — rather than being limited to the strict preservation of past landscapes or the unconditional acceptance of change.

For the area overseen by SynecO in MoN Farm, approximately 4,400 candidate plant species were analyzed (left image), and potential species for introduction were explored using diversity and network indicators that comprehensively capture the ecosystems of MoN Takanawa and the broader Kanto region.

Based on this analysis, plants selected with respect for Japan’s native ecological context are arranged in a 3×3 vegetation grid (right image), overlaying two perspectives:

• A: Changes in biodiversity caused by environmental shifts

• B: Changes in biodiversity caused by the movement of genetic resources accompanying the development of civilization

Visitors will participate in the exhibition through activities such as harvesting and the introduction of seeds and seedlings. By re-forming relationships with urban ecosystems, they are positioned as active participants who help expand ecosystems toward landscapes to come.

Kickoff Event: “Tanebiraki — Cultivating Culture, Planting the Future”

On Sunday, July 12, 2026, a citizen-participatory kickoff event titled “Tanebiraki — Cultivating Culture, Planting the Future” will be held at MoN Farm.

Participants will plant seedlings together and take part in the creation of a small ecosystem on the museum rooftop. The event will mark the beginning of MoN Farm as a living archive that will continue to grow through participation, observation, and care.

Full press release about MoN Farm from JR East Culture Creation Foundation below.

https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000033.000151586.html

(Only Available in Japanese)