Theme2025
The Road to the Zoo - Public Entertainment Promenade

The local city where Tokuyama Station - one of the stations at which Japan's high-speed Shinkansen stops - is located, has expanded into the surrounding area and is now called Shunan City. The name Tokuyama is still used in various places, one example being Tokuyama Zoo. Tokuyama Station and Tokuyama Zoo are connected by a major road, which has two names depending on the section: Miyuki Street and Kisan Street.

While the names are a bit complex, the structure is quite simple. Along the Ginkgo Tree-lined promenade, the city hall, library, post office, art museum, cultural hall, and high school all face this street. This is a typical example of postwar urban planning for Japanese local cities that were hit by air raids during World War II. The 2-kilometer-long promenade, frequently used by visitors, has two lanes on each side, wide sidewalks, and a central median with trees. The promenade serves as the most important public space and the "face" of this city.
The subject of this year’s VDWC focuses on this promenade space. As we enter the 21st century, this city is facing typical issues of Japanese local cities: an aging population and population decline. The challenge is to shift from a car-dependent lifestyle to a compact and centralized city connected by a public transportation system that even senior citizens can have access to. There are various possibilities for solving these issues and challenges with new autonomous mobility options, from small buses to even smaller and slower vehicles. A circular bus service called the "Choinori 100-Yen Bus" or “A Short Ride on the 100-Yen Bus” in English is already in operation, but within the network of new mobility options, the promenade is expected to play an even more important role as the center of the local community. With the new mobility, traffic volume consisting of vehicles in general is expected to decrease. By reducing not just pedestrian space but also lanes, or reconfiguring the space, the promenade could become more than just a transit area. It could transform into a space with new public amenities.

Walking from the station to the zoo takes about 30 minutes. If mobility that coexists even better with pedestrians becomes the main focus and makes the promenade itself transform into a public entertainment space that entertains citizens and tourists alike (like a park, art museum, library, museum, or even a zoo), the promenade could become a place for people to meet and relax. At that time, methods of using information devices that encourage interaction with real people (rather than just sitting and looking at smartphones) might need to be devised.
In recent years, Japan has become a very popular destination for international tourists, and this interest has extended to typical local cities like Tokuyama, showcasing everyday Japanese lifestyle and culture. If this public entertainment promenade could create, offer the people to experience, and promote the appeal of such urban lifestyle, it might serve as a new model for local city revitalization.

We look forward to seeing attractive ideas for the road from the station to the zoo. However, these should not just be proposals, they must demonstrate their feasibility through some form of traffic simulation. For example, the following are some of the various factors that can be considered. Will reducing lanes have a negative impact on the surrounding traffic? Can new mobility options sufficiently fulfill transportation demands? To what extent can pedestrian flow be secured safely? How will guidance using information devices affect pedestrian flow? VDWC anticipates ideas studied through such simulations to be bold yet convincing. The contest’s outcome will hinge on presentations that make these spaces feel as though they are being experienced.

▲Tokuyama Station and the area around Tokuyama Zoo

The copyrights to all data, works, and products created through this competition shall remain the property of the authors.

FORUM8 shall have the right to edit and process the data, works, and deliverables created by the author, and shall have the right to use them for secondary purposes, such as publishing and distributing them on its website, e-mail news, PR magazines, books, magazines, newspapers, etc., as part of external announcements, research presentations, sales activities, and public relations activities.

The use of UC-win/Road is required for the production of the work. In addition, contestants must use at least one more FORUM8 software/solution to create their project. BIM/CIM data and posters explaining the results of these linkages and design/analysis will be submitted. Data and posters explaining these linkages and the results of design and analysis will be evaluated in terms of the degree of use of BIM/CIM and VR, creation period and quality, logic and technical skills, aesthetics and originality, and presentation techniques, and how the software was used to create a new design.

Date: Thu. November 20th, 2025
Venue: Shinagawa Intercity Hall (MAP)

Nominated teams will be asked to participate in the open judging and give a five-minute presentation. If you do not participate, you will not be eligible for an award.
The winning award works will be selected through the final judging committee and judge on cloud via VR-Cloud® and the Award Ceremony will be held.
The competition result will be also announced on the FORUM8 website.

Please register and submit your work plan in English during the registration period (Tue. April 1st – Mon. June 30th, 2025).
Judging will be conducted blindly. The name of the team or work should not identify the individual or group, such as the name of the country or school.
To register, please complete the page accessible from the button below with your team name, team members, etc.

Entry/Register

Please download and fill out the form using the following link to present your work with an overview explanation (in 100 words in English) and any images and upload it using the Registration form below.

Entry form

The following information will be sent to you by e-mail after the entry has been accepted.

- Entry ID
- URL to download the data and materials provided for the production of the work
- Information on how to apply for seminars you wish to attend

Free rental of product licenses

The preliminary screening will be held on Wed. July 16th, and the selection results will be announced on Fri. 18th July.

Only teams that enter before the deadline and pass the qualifying round will be allowed to submit their works. Please submit your work by the submission deadline on Fri. September 26th, 2025 at the dedicated URL that will be separately announced at a later date.

[Documents to be submitted]

- Data created by the software solution used
UC-win/Road VR data (data that violates copyrights is prohibited.)
* Scripting (automatic presentation) settings are required for UC-win/Road VR data. Please observe the following points.
- Create a 30-second main script to convey the main idea of the work, like a commercial.
- In addition, you may optionally create multiple scripts of about 15 seconds each, but please make sure that your work can be recognized by looking at the main script alone.
- Give your script a unique name.
- Cloud screening will be conducted at a resolution of 768x432. Please note the font size.

How to make your script (PDF, 523KB)

- "Data" created with FORUM8 software (2 or more data files)

- PDF file of A1 sized poster (oriented horizontally)
* In English
Please create your poster with margin of 10mm on the left, right, top and bottom.

FORUM8 Co. Ltd. Tokyo Head office Virtual Design World Cup Section
Shinagawa Intercity A-21F, 2-15-1 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 108-6021
TEL：03-6894-1888　FAX：03-6894-3888
E-mail：bim@forum8.co.jp
URL：http://www.forum8.co.jp/english/

Tue. April 1st to Fri. November 21th, 2025

* The rental duration, license restrictions and format provided will depend on the individual product.
* Rental licenses allow the use of all the functions that each applicable software offers, but they cannot be used for purposes other than the competition.

(Planned rental products)
◎：Required software
○：Please select at least two software products with a white circle in front.

◎UC-win/Road
(including Aimsun Linkage, VISSIM Linkage, Micro Simulation Player, Parking Lot, Assessment, Tsunami, Debris-Avalanche, Point Cloud / As-built drawing management plugins)

Allplan
Integrated Civil Construction BIM Solution

○Engineer's Studio®
3D Plate Dynamic Non-linear Analysis

Shade3D

○UC-1 Series
Civil engineering design CAD (Pier 3D bar arrangement, Abutment design 3D bar arrangement, BOX Culvert, 3D bar arrangement CAD, Parking Drawing System, Vehicle Trajectory Mapping System, UC-1 BIM/CIM Tool, etc.)

○UC-1 Cloud Auto Design Series

○DesignBuilder
Building Energy Consumption Calculation

EXODUS / SMARTFIRE Analysis Support Service, Evacuation Analysis Support Service　*1

○Wind and Heat Movement Analysis Support Service　*1

○Municipality solution　*2

○Parking solution　*2

○VR city planning system　*2

○Super computing cloud　*2

*1 Simplified analysis service with BIM data is provided.
*2 Various solution/service (analysis/rendering, etc) are available for a limited time for application in BIM. Advance counseling about the purpose of use is required.