Design Week is Tokyo’s most prominent “week,” which makes sense given the globally recognized prowess of Japanese industrial design. The five-day event, which took place Oct. 30 to Nov. 3 at several main venues and a plethora of satellite sites around the city, was set up toshowcase the most innovative works from creators both domestic and international. Last year’s event drew as many as 85,298 visitors and 100,000 were anticipated for the current edition.
While it would be impossible to take in everything, a look at a few of the main sites offered a fairly comprehensive vision as to what direction product designers are planning to take our homes and lifestyles in the near future, and more generally what interests the current generation of creators.
Design Tide, a public exhibition held at Tokyo Midtown, featured 30+ prototype displays meant to engage visitors in contemplation of form, space, the reuse of materials, and especially time—for some reason (modern hurried city life, one can suppose) there were a disproportionate number of clocks.
Tomatsu Koshima’s delicate rocking horse “Klák” evoked distant days when hand-crafted was the only possible aesthetic, while Hironao Tsuboi from design firm 100% neatly assimilated LED technology into the “Faceless Watch.” Retz Yoshimoto mapped the linear quality of time in a clock that traveled along a horizontal plane in accordance with the passing of the hours, while Teruhiro Yanagihara annihilated collectively established time altogether with the “Put It,” a clock that allows it’s users to set the time with post-it notes.
Meanwhile 100% Design, a huge tent show mainly for industry professionals, featured hundreds of displays that could be categorized generally as using un-muddled colors, transparent and home-spun materials, airy skeletal structures, smooth light wood, and recycled elements.
We naturally headed straight for the smattering bright lights, checking in with lighting manufacturers Lecip who are on a mission to prove that neon can be just as future forward (and need not remind one exclusively of Shinjuku or Vegas) as LED. Lecip produces cold cathode lights that have been used, in collaboration with Light Design Inc., in iconic structures as diverse as the Mikimoto building in Ginza to the Forest of Meditation in Gifu Prefecture.
Outside the main tent in the “Container Ground,” the student group ep3 from the Musashino University architecture program was elected by the organizers to create their “Photon Garden” in one of 15 freight containers set aside for special exhibits. The 3D display of 1600 LEDs uses an animated light display to evoke a living forest.
For a more detailed look at the events and the current debate of “where is design heading?” check out the coverage on PingMag and Tokyo Art Beat.
