Anticipation on the Rise as the Lexus Design Award 2016 Finalists are Announced

(TORONTO, ON – January 26, 2016) Lexus International today announced the 12 finalists for the Lexus Design Award. First launched in 2013 to foster the growth of ideas that can contribute to society, this international design competition aims to support young up-and-coming creators from around the world.

 

The fourth annual staging of the Lexus Design Award drew 1, 232 entries from 73 countries under the theme of “Anticipation.”

 

A panel of world-renowned designers and creators gathered in November to judge the entries. This year, entrants impressed the judges by creating designs as yet unseen or undefined but likely to be realized in the near future. After extensive discussion, and after noting the participants’ passion and willingness to explore the unpredictable, the judges chose 12 finalist entries for their potential contribution to design innovation.

 

The following four finalists will produce prototypes of their designs under the mentorship of globally recognized creators:

• AGAR PLASTICITY, by AMAM (Japan), is a project exploring how agar, a gelatinous material obtained from the marine algae, can be used as an environmentally friendly packaging materials alternative to plastic.

• DADA, by Myungsik Jang (Korea), is a block toy which can be freely combined using bands, holes, and pegs to create and realize each child’s imagination.

• Shape Shifters, by Angelene Laura Fenuta (Canada-based Italian designer), is a special cut of garment, applying modular principles to textiles, which allows creating different fashions outfits.

• Trace, by STUDIO AYASKAN (UK-based Turkish designers), is a clock that uses a liquid with UV rays and discoloration properties allowing us to visualize the passing time.

 

Architects and interdisciplinary designers Neri & Hu, along with designer Max Lamb will return as mentors, while designer/architect Elena Manferdini and artist/architect Snarkitecture join as the mentors for the first time.

 

The four completed prototypes will be featured as part of the Lexus exhibition at this year's Milan Design Week, along with panel presentations of the other eight finalists’ designs. The event will run from April 11 through April 17 at T32 Torneria/Carrozzeria, Via Tortona 32, 20144 (Zona Tortona).

The Grand Prix winner of the Lexus Design Award 2016, selected from the four prototype finalists, is going to be announced on April 11 at the award ceremony.

 

Further details on the Lexus space at the 2016 Milan Design Week* will be announced in mid-February.

 

* The world's largest design exhibition, also known as Salone Del Mobile, with numerous events including furniture, fashion and many world-renowned brands. The "Lexus – A Journey of the Senses" exhibit in 2015 earned high acclaim and won the “Best Entertaining” award at the “Milano Design Award” competition.

 

More information and pictures can be found on: 

Lexus Design Award website: www.lexusdesignaward.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexusdesignaward/   @lexusdesignaward

Official hashtags:#LexusDesignAward; #MilanDesignWeek; #LDAnticipate

 

 

Lexus Design Award 2016 Entries Selected for Prototype Development:

 

Title

DADA

Designer

(Nationality)

Myungsik Jang (Korean)

Country of residence

South Korea

Description

DADA is a block toy which can be freely combined using bands, holes, and pegs to stimulate each child’s imagination.

Mentor

Neri and Hu

Title

Shape Shifters

Designer

(Nationality)

Angelene Laura Fenuta (Canadian/Italian)

Country of residence

Canada

Description

Shape Shifters is a special cut of garment, applying modular principles to textiles, which allows creating different outfits.

Mentor

Elena Manferdini

Title

TRACE

Designers

(Nationality)

STUDIO AYASKAN

• Begum Ayaskan (Turkish)
• Bike Ayaskan (Turkish)

Country of residence

United Kingdom

Description

Trace is a clock that uses a liquid with UV rays and discoloration properties, allowing us to visualize the passing time.

Mentor

Snarkitecture

 

 

Lexus Design Award 2016 Panel Exhibits:

 

Title

aniknown

Designer (Nationality)

Ayami Marugata (Japanese)

Country of residence

Japan

Description

aniknown is a creation of clothes for six types of animal, choosing the materials according to each one’s features, behaviour and habitat.

Title

Bio-Vide

Designer (Nationality)

Takuma Yamazaki (Japanese)

Country of residence

Japan

Description

Bio – Vide is a product, such as tables or envelopes, designed using fallen leaves. It is a visualization of the concept that all things return to earth.

Title

Drop Box

Designers (Nationality)

Ding Dong & Ma Jincai & Peter Luo & Huang Junxi

• Ding Dong(Chinese)
• Jincai Ma(Chinese)
• Peter Luo (Chinese)
• Junxi Huang(Chinese)

Country of residence

China

Description

Drop Box utilizes aerodynamics to allow critical supplies to be airdropped safely in disaster areas without requiring a parachute.

Title

Hexagon

Designer (Nationality)

Chulin Yang (Chinese)

Country of residence

Australia

Description

Hexagon is an umbrella that uses magnets to connect to other umbrellas, encouraging interaction between people.

Title

PLANTS-SKIN

Designer (Nationality)

Hiroto Yoshizoe (Japanese)

Country of residence

Japan

Description

PLANTS-SKIN is a planter made of a colored mortar and special ink that visualizes the timing for watering plants.

Title

Project Play

Designer (Nationality)

Oliver Staiano (British)

Country of residence

United Kingdom

Description

Project Play is a first-of-its-kind lamp powered by wireless technology and realized through the creation of magnetic rubber.

Title

RESOLUTION OF SOUND LOCATION

Designers (Nationality)

Owls

• Takato Sasaki(Japanese),
• Yuki Shinohara (Japanese)

Country of residence

Japan

Description

RESOLUTION OF SOUND LOCATION is a headphone device composed of super directive microphones and speakers that can determine the sound source and adjust volume.

Title

Slow Door

Designers (Nationality)

Deepak Jawahar & Irina Bogdan

• Deepak Jawahar (Indian)
• Irina Michaela Bogdan (Romanian)

Country of residence

China

Description

Slow Door is conceived as an assembly of cubic components forming a spatial mechanism that delays the transition through a doorway. It allows us to appreciate the time and space created by the experience.

 

 

Mentor Profiles :

 

Neri & Hu / Architects and Interdisciplinary Designers

Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, cofounders of Neri & Hu Design and Research based in Shanghai, have been working on projects around the world which incorporate overlapping design disciplines to create a new paradigm in architecture. In 2014, Wallpaper* announced Neri & Hu as 2014 Designer of The Year. In 2013, they were inducted into the U.S. Interior Design Hall of Fame. Neri & Hu believes strongly that research is a key design tool as each project brings its own unique set of contextual issues. Providing architecture, interior, master planning, graphic and product design services, Neri & Hu recognizes that contemporary problems relating to buildings extend beyond the boundaries of traditional architecture. Rather than starting from a formulaic design, Neri & Hu’s work is anchored in the dynamic interaction of experience, detail, material, form and light.

 

Max Lamb / Designer

A modern day artificer, Max Lamb is a product and furniture designer whose design sensibility is informed by his extensive knowledge of manufacturing techniques, respect for materials, and skill as a maker. A native of Cornwall, Max has been tinkering with objects and engaging with the physical landscape since he was a small boy; a curiosity that led to an MA in Design Products at the Royal College of Art and subsequently the foundation of his workshop-based design practice. Max explores both traditional and unconventional materials and processes, blending experimentation and rationale to create furniture and products that are both honest and intelligible. Max teaches Design Products at the Royal College of Art and runs regular design workshops for companies and institutions around the world.

 

 

Elena Manferdini / Designer, Architect

Elena Manferdini, founder and owner of Atelier Manferdini, with offices in Italy and California, has completed design, art and architectural projects in the United States, Europe and Asia including the Pavilion of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.  Her firm has collaborated with such internationally renowned companies as Swarovski, and Sephora and her work has been featured in journals and publications including Elle, Vogue and the New York Times.  Currently Graduate Chair at the Southern California Institute of Architecture she exhibits internationally and lectures widely having spoken at MIT, Princeton, Tsinghua University and Bauhaus. She was recently awarded the 2013 COLA Fellowship to support the production of original artwork.  In 2011 she received a prestigious annual grant from United States Artists (USA) and her Blossom design for Alessi received the Good Design Award.

 

 

Snarkitecture / Artists and Architects

In 2008 Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen founded Snarkitecture, a collaborative and experimental practice operating in territories between art and architecture. Sharing a mutual interest in the intersection of art and architecture since their student days together at Cooper Union in New York, their first commission was for Dior Homme. Deriving its name from Lewis Carroll's fanciful poem "The Hunting of the Snark", Snarkitecture designs permanent, architectural scale projects and functional objects with new and imaginative purposes, creating moments of wonder and interaction that allow people to engage directly with the surrounding environment. Transforming the familiar into the extraordinary, Snarkitecture makes architecture perform the unexpected.

 

 

Judge Profiles:

 

Paola Antonelli / Curator

Antonelli joined The Museum of Modern Art in 1994 and is a Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, as well as MoMA’s Director of Research and Development. Her first exhibition for MoMA, Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design (1995), was followed by Thresholds. She has lectured at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and has served on several international architecture and design juries. Her goal is to insistently promote understanding of design until its positive influence on the world is fully acknowledged and exploited. She is currently working on several shows on contemporary design, and on Design Bites, a book about foods from all over the world, appreciated as examples of outstanding design.

 

 

Aric Chen / Curator

Originally from the United States, Chen is the newly appointed Curator of Design and Architecture at M+, the future museum for visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong. Before that, he served as Creative Director of Beijing Design Week in 2011 and 2012. He had earlier been an independent curator and design writer in New York, contributing to dozens of publications including The New York Times, Metropolis, Fast Company, Architectural Record, and PIN-UP.

 

 

 

Toyo Ito / Architect

Ito graduated from the University of Tokyo, Department of Architecture in 1965. His main works include:  Sendai Mediatheque, Tama Art University Library (Hachioji), The Main Stadium for the World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung (Taiwan R.O.C). Under development are: Taichung Metropolitan Opera House (Taiwan R.O.C) and others. Among his many honors are the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize, Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement from the 8th International Architecture Exhibition “NEXT” at the Venice Biennale, Royal Gold Medal from The Royal Institute of British Architects and the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

 

 

Birgit Lohmann / Chief Editor of designboom

Born in Hamburg, Lohmann studied industrial design in Florence before moving to Milan, where she has lived and worked since 1987. She worked as a designer and product development manager for a number of Italian architects and master designers. She has also worked as a design historian for justice departments and international auction houses. As a researcher and lecturer, she has conducted seminars on industrial design at a number of prestigious international universities. In 1999, she co-founded designboom, where she is currently the Chief Editor, Head of Educational  Programming and Curator for International Exhibitions.

 

 

Alice Rawsthorn / Design Commentator

Alice Rawsthorn is the design critic of the International New York Times. Her weekly Design column, published every Monday, is syndicated to other media worldwide. Alice is a trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery and the Michael Clark Dance Company, and chair of trustees at the Chisenhale Gallery. Her latest book, the critically acclaimed Hello World: Where Design Meets Life published by Hamish Hamilton, explores design’s influence on our lives past, present and future.

 

 

 

Tokuo Fukuichi / President of Lexus International