Design is never just a matter of aesthetics, or it shouldn't be. Good design is the result of a sum of creativity, functionality and solution of needs. And the best design also anticipates the future or takes into account forgotten aspects until a creative gets down to work.
Following the principles of omotenashi -a Japanese concept that encompasses both hospitality and mindfulness-, Lexus is presenting this year's four Lexus Design Awards, within the framework of the Salone del Mobile in Milan, an example of these concepts that they anticipate the challenges of the future or enter uncharted terrain and address them with innovative solutions.
The selected works express the Japanese car firm's belief that design can and should bring about positive change while fostering happiness for all. In its eleventh edition, a jury made up of Paola Antonelli, Karim Rashid and Simon Humphries has selected the concepts that best represented the Design for a Better Tomorrow theme.
Pavels Hedström, a Swedish architect based in Denmark, is the author of Fog-X, a jacket that transforms into a tent or shelter and can trap fog to turn it into drinking water. The creative explains that he started from his experience as an architect in hostile environments and tested his prototype in a place as inhospitable as the Atacama desert (Chile).
Hedström looked at the behavior of animals and plants to survive in a place with very little rainfall and saw that cacti, for example, get hydrated from the fog. His jacket becomes, precisely, a collector of moisture from the fog thanks to the fabric of a sail that is part of the garment and allows the production of up to 20 liters per day.
The jacket, which weighs 1.7kg, can store up to 3 of those liters (the rest can be stored in bottles). To help users find the places where the fog settles, the creator has also developed an app. "The idea is to close the circle so that the design minimizes its impact with an approximation as close to nature as possible."
The Chinese engineer Jiaming Liu is based on the circular economy to provide solutions to people's daily lives. He has designed the Print Clay Humidifier, a sustainable, electricity-free humidifier made from recycled ceramic waste, such as clay pots, which he pulverizes and then 3D prints. He relied on the capillarity of certain materials to be able to refresh a room naturally thanks to this property.
A liter of water takes about 24 hours to evaporate from Jiaming Liu's model formed by a spiral tower that has the particularity of not deforming with the liquid. The humidifier also does not lose effectiveness as a building material when it is recycled. It is a useful endless recycling.
Temporary Office, a US-based studio formed by Singaporean Vincent Lai and Canadian Douglas Lee, presented Touch the Valley at the Lexus Design Awards, a 3D topographical puzzle that helps visually impaired people learn about their surroundings physical through touch.
The blind can know how to fit the pieces thanks to their different heights, their differentiated touch and an ingenious system of magnets. "Understanding the environment is a way of controlling one's life and health, they explain." Your project is fully customizable.
Kyeongho Park and Yejin Heo (Republic of Korea) are the designers of Zero Bag, a new seaweed-based clothing wrap that dissolves in water and simultaneously acts as a detergent capable of removing chemicals from products, while while reducing plastic waste.
The idea of these two young designers is to “simplify the process of buying clothes and minimize the waste generated by this trade”. But in addition to packing clothes, this biopolymer could be used to pack food, such as fruit
Prior to their presentation at Milan Design Week, the winners had the exclusive opportunity to collaborate and brainstorm for three months with four world-class creators, who served as mentors for this year's Lexus Design Award: Marjan van Aubel, Joe Doucet, Yuri Suzuki, and Sumayya Vally, who helped them refine their ideas and develop the various prototypes into possible, practical, and scalable designs.
2,068 projects from 63 countries have been submitted to the contest. During the awards ceremony, Simon Humphries, Toyota Motor Corporation Chief Branding Officer, stated: "Designers have a unique responsibility to create responses to challenges, whether through innovative ideas, beautiful aesthetics or any other method that can offer a better future. From this point of view, the winning ideas are a clear reminder of the 'power of design'”.
The final prototypes are exhibited this week at the Milanese Superstudio Più, in Zona Tortona. The Lexus Design Award also invites the public to participate in the Your Choice Award and vote for the idea they think best represents the Design for a Better Tomorrow concept. Voting is open to both face-to-face and online visitors.
These four young designs are accompanied by the singular installation Shaped by air, created by Suchi Reddy, a New York artist and architect. Reddy, who has been inspired by the Lexus Electrified Sport - Lexus' future all-electric sports coupe - said in the presentation of his work that art helps educate people and can be "a great microphone" to talk about issues like sustainability.
"I think that art can have a lot of influence when it comes to educating people", since "it has the ability to allow people to understand something emotionally". The founder of Reddymade Architecture and Design believes that art should be used as a "a great microphone to talk about issues such as sustainability and care for the planet".
Shaped by air shows a scale interpretation of the Lexus Electrified Sport as if it had been shaped by the air around it. For Reddy, it was interesting to analyze the shapes of the car in relation to its dynamic behaviour, particularly important in an electric car.
