AXIS vol.159 on sale!
12.09.01
Cover interview Stefan Diez
Dieter Rams has called Stefan Diez a true successor to his thinking, a creative engineer who takes seriously Rams'idea that design is a comprehensive thought process. With his sincere attitude towards design, Stefan Diez continues to develop the traditions of German design into the future.
Feature Agricultural development through design
As protectionist policies imposed by the government are at their limit, agriculture is tasked with establishing new business models. Innovative and dedicated individuals and groups are beginning to show new developments in this regard, and it is precisely because this requires creative and imaginative solutions that design is most certainly involved in the process. In this issue’s feature we re-examine the power of design through agriculture, an endeavor that is indispensable to human life.
Rather than look at design as it relates to packaging and promotion, here we explore its role in everything from agricultural systems themselves to the establishment of new business models.
Traditional Craft Forms Kumiko
With its intricate patterns, kumiko imparts a sense of lightness and buoyancy to interior space. This traditional technique of joining strips of wood without nails is used mainly in shoji (lattice screens) and ranma (transoms). As it requires making slits, holes and mortises through the masterful use of planers, saws, and chisels on finely split wood pieces, kumiko is said to be the medium for joinery artisans to show off their skills. Kumiko has been used not only in private homes but also recently as ornamentation in commercial spaces.
Opinion Hideyuki Hirakawa, Associate Professor at Osaka University Center
for the Study of Communication-Design
“What should the non-expert’s relationship with science and technology be?”
Our lives are supported by science and technology. After the 3.11 disaster, however, the Japanese can no longer afford to take this obvious fact for-granted. How should we deal with science and technology that is deeply linked to our daily lives? I talked to Mr. Hideyuki Hirakawa who researches the ideal state of science in society and has written To whom does science belong?
Topics The future direction of cooking enabled by 3D Printing
Engineers and chefs are exploring the possibilities of “printing” food with a 3D printer, as if printing text on paper. Startups in the US have begun to take notice, and have unveiled multi-use 3D printers capable of handling food. What kind of cuisine can you create with a 3D printer? Here’s a close up look at these initiatives.
Topics Marcel Wanders takes up the challenge of art direction in the beauty industry
KOSE has been developing Cosme Decorte AQ MW as a new line in its high-end Cosme Decorte brand since 2010. The AQ MW line, which comprises a diversity of items, from skin care products to makeup, has become the focus of much interest with the hiring of Marcel Wanders as art director.
Topics S&O Design’s Continuous Design
Established this July by Hisakazu Shimizu and Eizo Okada, S&O Design is daring to confront the present shift in the significance and value of formative expression in industrial design. By setting “continuity” as the keyword and reexamining the design process, they are aiming to put the spotlight once again on the essence of the designer’s work that is to “create forms.”
Topics Naoto Fukasawa talks about the Japan Folk Crafts Museum
Product designer Naoto Fukasawa was appointed to the position of 5th generation curator of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum on July 1. The news of this appointment must have been received with a certain sense of surprise by people involved in design and those involved in crafts. The Japan Folk Crafts Museum built in Komaba, Tokyo in 1936 houses approximately 17,000 daily items made by anonymous crafts people and collected by Soetsu Yanagi. I asked Fukasawa about their relation to today’s design.
Other topics
Flexible ubanism–The Proxy project in San Francisco
Interview with John Maeda
Other series
The Prototype Riken Brain Institute “SR System”
Blinking Memory “Trunk of Curiosities”
Masaaki Hiromuras Junglin “Detecting fake laughs”
Life in Tokyo with civil engineering “A robust system that protects the strees” etc.
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