Fukuoka, Japan
NOBOROKKA is an outdoor step system designed to address places in natural environments that are clearly dangerous, yet have long been left unresolved due to a lack of realistic options. Such places—mountain paths, slopes, work trails, and access routes in public and private land—exist close to everyday life. Although the risks are well recognized, decisions are often postponed because large-scale construction can damage nature, costs are high, and failure carries heavy responsibility.
NOBOROKKA by Hemmi Planning Co, won a 2026 Green Good Design Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies.
The problem NOBOROKKA addresses is not simply the absence of steps. It is a structural dilemma faced by those responsible for these environments: the desire to improve safety without harming nature, the inability to accept failure, and the lack of authority or budget for major construction, while still being unable to ignore the danger. NOBOROKKA offers a realistic alternative to this dilemma.
Rather than aiming for a single, permanent solution, NOBOROKKA is designed around the idea of “starting small and improving safety reliably.” It does not require excavation or permanent fixation, nor does it assume perfect installation conditions.
Instead, it supports human movement while minimizing environmental impact. The modular structure allows steps to be added, adjusted, or replaced over time, accommodating changes in terrain and reducing the risk of irreversible failure. This is not infrastructure meant to be completed all at once, but a system that enables safety to be built gradually.
The origin of NOBOROKKA lies in a simple but urgent voice from the field: “Wooden steps rot and do not last.” Responding to this issue, the system has been continuously refined and trusted for nearly 50 years in professional infrastructure environments where reliability is critical. The 2025 model further advances this history by incorporating talc into the material, achieving higher strength and durability suited to demanding natural conditions.
NOBOROKKA does not seek to control nature, but to coexist with it. By enabling small, reversible improvements rather than imposing permanent structures, it encourages a more flexible and responsible relationship between people and the natural environment. Through the accumulation of modest yet certain steps, NOBOROKKA redefines how safety can be improved under real-world constraints. This project embodies a design approach that respects environmental limits while empowering people to act—and to keep improving—where inaction was once the only option.
Designers: Hiroko Hemmi, Hemmi Planning Co., Ltd.
Manufacturer: Hemmi Planning Co., Ltd.
