DESIGN SCIENCE_01 THE DESIGN SCIENCE FOUNDATION

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DESIGN SCIENCE_01

At the beginning of the foundation's activities, we asked 11 contributors to share their thoughts on the connection between design and science. The contents are compiled and published as a book “DESIGN SCIENCE_01”.
The following is the summary of the editorials of the contributors.

Ad Hoc Intelligence

April 2022, Israel. The brilliant coordination of the Tel Aviv airport attendants, accurate responses of waitresses at restaurants in the city, stools made of just peeled wood that I met at a café, photographs of “square lumps of orange juice” that the former pastry chef of the world-renowned restaurant “noma” showed me, etc. The events, objects, and human’s networks are there. Here is something that is backed up by experience and hidden in the responses and statements of the moment. There is something that touches, soothes, and inspiring thought. These are intelligences that are both designs and science, something that should be called “ad hoc intelligence” that emerge from the encounter of designs and science.

“We are in unprecedented hunger. We live in a constant lack of beauty, or even in lost landscapes, mediocre and pragmatic architecture, and objects that are insensitive to human handiwork and consideration.”(Luigi Zoya)

Resisting the deterioration of bodily sensations and sensitivities, slowly steer toward a humans’ beautiful future, we hereby declare the new quests for knowledges in “Design x Science.”

Naoto FUKASAWA

Designer / THE DESIGN SCIENCE FOUNDATION Founder

Fukasawa was born in Yamanashi in 1956. He graduated from the Three-Dimensional Design Course (Product Design), Department of Design, Faculty of Art and Design at Tama Art University in 1980. Then, he was engaged in design work for seven years, mainly in the Silicon Valley industry, and returned to Japan in 1996. In 2003, the NAOTO FUKASAWA DESIGN was established. Currently, he is a professor at Tama Art University, Faculty of Art and Design, Department of Integrated Design; and Director of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum. He was involved in many design and consulting projects for famous brands and companies in Japan. He sits on the design advisory board of Ryohin Keikaku. He has been awarded the IDEA Award Gold, iF Product Design Award Gold, D&AD Selection, Mainichi Design Award, Oribe Award, Isamu Noguchi Award, and many others. He established The DESIGN SCIENCE FOUNDATION in 2022. His publications include Normality (D & Department Project, 2020), AMBIENT: An Exhibition of Lifestyles Designed by Naoto Fukasawa (Gendaikikakusitsu Publishers, 2017), and The Outline of Design (TOTO Publishing, 2005). He co-authored The Ecological Approach to Design: A New Design Textbook (Tokyo Shoseki, 2004) and The Archetype of Design (Rikuyosha, 2002).

Design Is Science

Crystals, such as raindrops, snow, and biominerals are self-organized. Plants stretch while searching for the direction of gravity, temperature, humidity, objects and soil, and rotate everywhere. They have a keen “sense of smell” and “nerveless intelligence.” African termites perceive the concentration of fecal smells and build huge homes. Plants and animals perceive and act on the “gradient” of the environment that surrounds them.

Science, which is said to begin with the calculation of planetary orbits, has evolved through thermodynamics and the theory of evolution to become the domain of observing the surrounding “macro,” i.e., the “middle-scale things” that surrounds living things in the global environment. In thermodynamics, we explore the macros, which appears as an increase in entropy, the randomness created by microscopic objects such as molecules. In nonlinear science, we explore the emergent and transitional medium-scale macroscopic phases, such as the small waves on the surface of water or the expression on a single face. Science is always observing the “designs” of its surroundings.

It is the idea of “design-science” that proposes that design and science are different names for one and the same job. The author’s flexiblity elucidate this principle from the perspective of ecological psychology.

Masato SASAKI

Ecological Psychologist

Sasaki was born in Hokkaido in 1952. He is an ecological psychologist. He completed his doctoral program at the University of Tsukuba Graduate School (Doctor of Education). He was an assistant professor at Waseda University and professor at Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies/Graduate School of Education, the University of Tokyo. Currently, he is a visiting professor at the Faculty of Art and Design, Department of Integrated Design, Tama Art University; and emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo. His publications include Being Everywhere at Once : The Geometry of Affordances (Gakugei Miraisha, 2020), New Edition Affordances (Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, 2015), Introduction to Affordances (Kodansha Gakujutsu Bunko, 2008), The Law of Layout: The Arts and Affordances (Shunjusha Publishing Company, 2003), Perception never ends (Seidosha, 2000), Affordances and Action (edited and written, Kanekoshobo, 2001), and many others. His translations include J.J. Gibson, The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems (supervised translation, University of Tokyo Press, 2011); Eleanor J. Gibson, Perceiving the Affordances: A Portrait of Two Psychologists (Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, 2006); and Nicholai A. Bernstein On Dexterity and Its Development (supervised translation, Kanekoshobo, 2003).

Design and the Science of Lighting

Dusk is the time of day when the great sky is dominated by a transparent blue after passing through orange, madder, pink, and various purples. How can we reproduce the charm of the beautiful scenes that occur in this poetic time and space, known as “blue moments,” using artificial light for indoor lighting and nighttime cityscapes?

A “fatal error” in the lighting environment in the second half of the 20th century disrupted the correct relationship between light and humans = the mechanism of perception. There are also issues such as the difference between illuminance and luminance (brightness perception) and the importance of the “color temperature” of the light source, ranging from “blue, white, yellow, vermilion, and red.”

The author, a world-renowned lighting designer, states: “In the 45 years since I’ve made lighting design for my profession, I have been asking myself to learn deeply about the relationship between the science of light and art, which natural light teaches.” “I refer to lighting design as ‘design of light’ or ‘design of shadows’ to introduce my profession.”

Through “ergonomics of light,” the academia of the five senses, which is advancing dramatically, lighting design continues to deepen from research on the physical properties of light to consideration of light and human comfort based on visual psychology and environmental psychology. This is an invitation to the forefront.

Kaoru MENDE

Lighting Designer

Mende was born in Tokyo in 1950. He completed a master’s course at Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1990, he established Lighting Planners Associates Co., Ltd. and is its Principal. He was active as a producer and planner of a wide range of lighting designs, from residential to architectural lighting and urban/environmental lighting. Simultaneously, he organized the Lighting Culture Study Group “Lighting Detectives” with citizen participation, and has been actively developing activities as the leader. He was responsible for lighting planning at the Tokyo International Forum, JR Kyoto Station, Sendai Mediatheque, Roppongi Hills, Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, Kyoto State Guest House, National Museum of Singapore, Lighting Masterplan for Singapore’s City Centre, Gardens by the Bay, Preservation and Restoration of the Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building, Aman Tokyo, and “Minna no Mori” Gifu Media Cosmos. He has also been awarded the International Lighting Design Award/Radiance Award, Illumination Awards of Illuminating Engineering Society/Award of Distinction, Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan/ Japan Illumination Award, Japanese Cultural Design Award, Mainichi Design Award, and many other awards. He is a member of the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ), Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan (IEIJ), International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), Japan Design Committee (JDC), and others. Currently, he is a visiting professor at Musashino Art University. His publications include Lighting Design for City and Architecture (Rikuyosha, 2005), World Lighting Detectives (Kajima Institute Publishing, 2004), Shadow Design: Lighting for City and Architecture (Rikuyosha, 2010), Light Seminar-Record of 10 Years of Mende Seminar at Musashino Art University Spatial Design Department (Kajima Institute Publishing, 2013), Architectural Lighting Practices: 10 Thoughts and 27 Practices Talking about Lighting Design (TOTO Publishing, 2015), LPA 1990-2015 Trends in Architectural Lighting Design (Rikuyosha, 2015), and many others.

“Rewardability” and “Punitiveness”

The Medieval Torture Museum in Prague displays a variety of torture devices used in witch hunts, including an iron chair with embedded spikes and a funnel for water torture. The author names the element that these “products” have as “punitiveness.” The filthy, privacy-less restrooms and dim lighting of prisons and detention centers are also filled with punitiveness. But people are refusing to allow the prison to improve its architecture and product design. This intolerance stems from poverty and irrationality under the capitalist system, where one’s daily living space is surrounded by highly punitive and inferior products.

What is required is an overall improvement in the standard of product design? Its design is pleasant to use and its aesthetic creativity has a rich “rewardability,” which gives mental satisfaction. Products that liberate us and do not stress us are thoroughly optimized for body posture and movement. The ideal of product design is to create a moment when the very existence of the product itself “disappears” outside of the user’s consciousness.

There lies the ethical and political challenge that product design must bear. This article is a reflection that illuminates the core of the issue.

Keiichiro Hirano

Author

Hirano was born in Gamagori City, Aichi Prefecture, in 1975, and hails from Kitakyushu City. He graduated from the Kyoto University Faculty of Law. In 1999, while still a student, he won the 120th Akutagawa Prize for his novel The Eclipse, which was submitted to the literary magazine “Shincho.” The book was published in 1998 by Shinchosha. It became a bestseller with 400,000 copies sold. Since then, his work has been published in a variety of styles that change with each work and has been translated and introduced in various countries. His publications include, as novels, Farewell to the Departed (Shinchosha, 2002), Ripples of the Dripping Clocks (Bungeishunju, 2004), Breach (Shinchosha, 2008), Dawn (Kodansha, 2009), Fill in the Blanks (Kodansha, 2012), The Transparent Labyrinth (Shinchosha, 2014), At the End of the Matinee (Mainichi Shimbun Publishing, 2016), A MAN (Bungeishunju, 2018), and others. His essays include How to Read a Book: Practicing Slow Reading (PHP Shinsho, 2006), How to read a novel: A point of view that allows you to express your impressions (PHP Shinsho, 2009), What am I?: From “Individual” to “Dividual” (Kodansha Gendai Shinsho, 2012), The Future of “Power of Life”: Changing World And Dividualism (Kodansha, 2014), Thinking Reed (KinoBooks, 2018), What is “cool” (Kodansha Gendai Shinsho, 2019), About The Death Penalty (Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, 2022), and others. At the End of the Matinee, which was made into a movie in 2019, is currently a long seller with a cumulative total of over 600,000 copies. Following the serial dramatization of Fill in the Blanks, a movie based on A MAN was released in November 2022. His latest novel, Heart of Hearts (Bungeishunju, 2021) is set in a near-future Japan where “free death” has been legalized. It features a son who uses the latest technology to resurrect his mother, who looks exactly like her, and tries to find out the “heart of hearts” of his mother who wished for a “free death.”

Kiwa – Wandering the edge

In Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan, the author has developed the “Kiwa Project,” which creates places for dialogue and production by observing urban images and constructed nature or native nature around the world. “Kiwa (際)” is a spatial boundary and an extreme moment when things change. “Kiwa” evokes the extreme threshold of sensation that captures the moment when something completely different emerges.

The author remarked: “When I think of the word “design,” I imagine the act of capturing Kizashi兆し(signs).……I feel that the act of de-sign is to keenly observe the signs of a strange and unknown existence, explore the protrusions and cracks by moving and touching, and make outstandingly the actual situation by repeatedly redrawing the dots and lines. Perhaps it is an existence that we can never understand, but it is something that interact with each other certainly. Isn’t design, then, a way to cultivate the sensitivity to confront strange objects come from surroundings?”

This is the coming “design x science” glow that will illuminate the “Kiwa” between knowledge and the unknown.

Tomoko Mukai

Visual-Spatial Designer / Design and Art Educator

Mukai was born in Tokyo, Japan. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the Department of Scenography, Display and Fashion Design, Musashino Art University (MAU), Tokyo, in 1991; and Master of Audio-Visual Media from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), Germany, in 1996. She engages in cultural and spatial projections using computer-generated optical landscapes. Her approach aims to provide intuitive experiences by focusing on the complex relationships among information, memory, and bodily perception shared in social life. She has realized the projections at various cultural and historical hubs in local communities, such as the Tokyo National Museum, Toeizan Kan’eiji Temple, Sogakudo Concert Hall of Tokyo University of the Arts, “Yanaka: liberated street – Kashiwa-Yu Dori,” Soto Zen Tochoji Temple (Tokyo), Kameoka Hachimangu Shrine (Kanagawa), Suo Kokubunji Temple, Hofu Tenmangu Shrine, Ichinosaka River (Yamaguchi), Trinitatis Church, Bonn Kunstverrein, and St. Gertrud (Germany). She has also presented exhibition designs with moving images from aspects of museum informatics, such as panorama projections or combining several 4K monitors for “Landscape Scroll of the Four Seasons by Sesshu Toyo (national treasures).” She emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration with other different professional fields. In such collaborations, she fosters a stride across the boundaries of platforms for expression between different genres. She has contributed to design and art education at many domestic and foreign universities as an associate professor, part-time lecturer, and researcher. She became independent in 2018. Since then she has been engaging in a wider range of activities.

Horizons of Design Anthropology:

Prisons implemented the concept of panopticon, and modern and later school classrooms appropriated it. When we reflect on the history of design in the 20th century, we cannot overlook the links between the imagination and creativity of design and power/violence. However, the author asks. Although design looks to the future, it is increasingly urged to contain a gaze into the past. Anthropology looks to the past, but it longs to respond to the present and engage with the future. Can we combine the two of them?

From this perspective, the author examines the implications of Lévi-Strauss’ “the logic of the concrete” and Bateson’s the study of “creatura.” The presentation will then introduce various cases of collaboration between design and anthropology that are currently underway in the Western world, including the publication of books bearing the title “design anthropology,” the hiring of anthropologists and sociologists by corporations, and the participation of designers and anthropologists in public policy. The author then proposes the possibility of a Design Anthropology (Design×Anthropology) that responds deeply and de-violently to urgent issues by engaging in the development and implementation of products and services, while discussing together the design that has the power to significantly change the future.

Yutaka NAKAMURA

Design Anthropologist

Nakamura is a cultural and design anthropologist. He is the CEO of Atelier Anthropology, LLC and a professor at the Center for Liberal Arts and Sciences, Faculty of Art and Design, Tama Art University. His work includes violence at “margin,” social suffering, anti-violence cultural expression, and anti-violence social design. Furthermore, he launched the anthropological design firm Atelier Anthropology and worked with various companies, designers, and managers toward social implementation. His publications include Walking the Margins of America: Traveling Anthropology (Heibonsha, 2021), Harlem Reverberated: Voices of Muslims on the Streets (Editorial Republica, 2015), Lectures on Art and Design : Behind Creativity (edited and written, Koubundou, 2016). His translations include Terry Williams and William Kornblum’s The Uptown Kids: Struggle and Hope in the Project (Otsuki Shoten Publishers, 2010).

Forms: Towards our methodology

The morphologies of organisms such as insects, birds, animals, and plants show the boundaries of equilibrium between factors, such as their environment, competition with other organisms, or symbiosis. Natural landscapes that overwhelm our perceptions, such as the aurora dancing in the sky, the ever-changing clouds, the slowly winding river, a gentle mountain range, an endless coast of gravel, and massive rocks that overwhelm, are also forms that appear as a state of equilibrium of various physical properties. The approximate forms of various phenomena can be reproduced by computer simulations.

C. Alexander developed and explained the logic of shapes in his books, Notes on the Synthesis of Shapes, Pattern Language, The Nature of Order. In Rediscovering Japan, Taro Okamoto attempted to illuminate works that give form to the simple and strong emotions of people who confronted and came to terms with their environment, such as Jomon pottery and clay figures from the Japanese archipelago, or the worldview and wishes left behind in the crafts and patterns of the Ainu people. Furthermore, there is a discussion of folk-art excavation by Muneyoshi Yanagi. In this essay, the author weaves these together and offers a vision of the mechanisms of harmony and integration in our time, a new form of science and methodology.

Katsuhiko Kushi

Professor at Kyoto Institute of Technology

Kushi was born in Niigata in 1959. He graduated from Kyoto Institute of Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Design. Subsequently, he was engaged in the research and development of product and interaction designs at NEC Design Co., Ltd. (currently NEC Corporation). During that time, he obtained an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) from Stanford University’s Product Design Program. In 1999, he became an assistant professor at Kyoto Institute of Technology. Since then, he has been engaged in practical research with companies, centering on a design methodology that combines observation and creation. He already has a Ph.D. Currently, he is a professor at Kyoto Institute of Technology, Department of Design and Architecture, and head of Master’s Programs in Design Studies. He has served as a jury member for the Good Design Award, board member of the Japanese Society for Science of Design, and special technical advisor at Kyoto Prefectural Small and Medium Business Technology Center. He has co-authored books including Information Design Classroom: Changing Work, Changing Society, Future Design Approaches and Techniques (Maruzen Publishing, 2010) and The Power of Design (Koyo Shobo, 2010).

Expectations for the Creation of New “Awareness"

Among the OECD countries of which developed countries are members, Japan lags far behind in the development of renewable energy that does not emit CO₂ and the penetration rate of electric vehicles and belongs to the group with the highest CO₂ emissions per nominal GDP. We used to enjoy “Japan as No. 1” but, in recent years, economic indicators of abundance such as national average income have been inferior to those of other developed countries. What are some tips on how to get off the “degenerative path?”

There is a study of earthworms and soil by Darwin. Some environmentalists have predicted global warming based on changes in the thickness of the Antarctic ice sheet. Masato Sasaki, a researcher of affordance theory, observed some visual and auditory phenomena that cannot be solved by modern physics such as optics and acoustics. In recent years, high-resolution sound sources that have been distributed by various companies, and 3D sounds, which give the illusion of being in a special seat in a concert hall, allow us to enjoy a richer and more realistic sound field. And there is even a secret to the beauty and comfort of the chair “HIROSHIMA” designed by Naoto Fukasawa.

Let’s look back in time and view event that cannot be adequately explained by modern science. This is where the essence of things may be revealed. Now is the time to explore the knowledge of “design x science” to create new insights and products!

Katsuyuki Toritani

External Director, Geniee,Inc.

Toritani was born in Fukuoka in 1956. He graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Sophia University, in 1980. Consequently, he joined Sanwa Research Institute Co., Ltd. in 1990 after working in product planning, quality assurance, and as an overseas representative at Seiko Epson Corporation. Together with Yoshitaka Saito, he wrote Illustrated Quick Guide to ISO 14001 (Ohmsha, 1996), which was released in conjunction with the publication of the first edition of the ISO 14001 international standard for the environment and sold more than 200,000 copies, including the revised second edition. In 2003, he contributed to the development of the company through audit work as the head of the internal audit department of Yahoo Japan Corporation and auditor of its subsidiary Sports Navi Co., Ltd. In 2017, he was appointed as an outside director (full-time Audit and Supervisory Committee member) of Geniee Inc., which aims to become a global technology company by realizing the goal of “creating a world where anyone can succeed in marketing.”

The Relationship between Design and Science

This was about half a century ago. Using an ultra-weak absorption spectrum measurement apparatus, a state-of-the-art device at the time, the research team including the author discovered that water, which was thought to be colorless and transparent, is a very light-colored liquid that absorbs a small amount of light.

And this discovery overturned all the existing theories about why seawater is blue, such as that it reflects the blue of the sky. Since the color of light that travels over a long distance in the water becomes blue and hence, the sea with a large amount of water also appears blue. We reached the conclusion that “seawater is blue” because “seawater” itself is blue. It also revealed the mysteries of the “deep blue” of the “Blue Grotto” on Capri, Italy, and the “bright blue” of the glaciers in Patagonia.

Since ancient times, “the seawater has been blue” and “the sky has also been blue” because the Deities designed nature that way. However, it was not until the 20th century that we, human being understood the reason, only with the help of science. The author states, “when I understood why the seawater is blue, I felt very happy.” The results of “The Exact Science of Light” testifies to the relationship between design and science and its beautiful and abundant future.

Nobutaka MATSUO

Patent Attorney

Matsuo was born in Kagawa in 1955. He completed Graduate School of Engineering Science, Department of Chemistry at Osaka University in 1980. After that, he joined Seiko Epson Corporation. In the company, he worked in the Research and Development Department and the Intellectual Property Department. During working in the Intellectual Property Department, he passed the patent attorney’s examination and was registered as a patent attorney in 1993. In 2000, he retired from the company and established Matsuo Patent Firm (now Mebuki IP Law Firm). After serving as a representative partner of Mebuki IP Law Firm for many years, he is now working as a partner in the same firm. He adopted “Mebuki (Japanese meaning: sprout and flourish)” in the name of the firm with the hope that the intellectual property of our clients, including their inventions, designs and trademarks, will sprout firmly in the currents of the times and grow into intellectual property that is truly useful to society. Since 2019, he has worked as a part-time lecturer at Suwa University of Science and has been vigorously working in social activities in the region where he lives so as to enlighten the residents to know more about the importance of the intellectual property, and he has been also actively working so as to support and revitalize small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) all over Japan as a general staff for the IP Comprehensive Helpdesks Secretariat that the National Center for Industrial Property Information and Training (INPIT) set up, and Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., Ltd. was entrusted to perform the operation of the Secretariat.

Brain, Mind, and Design Science

What is the solution of “brain function x design science?” The author visualized and introduced the similarities between a chaotic attractor (trajectory) obtained from EEG and the logo of THE DESIGN SCIENCE FOUNDATION. From both sides, he says, one can intuit the connection between brain function and design science.

Furthermore, the topic of the mind will be mentioned. In Japan, the number of long-term sick leave due to mental illnesses have been increasing from the beginning of this century to the present. Why is it? Is it caused by the environment or by humans? In recent years, research has focused on elucidating the mechanisms of human environmental adaptation as part of the social brain. For example, M. Lieberman, in the field of social cognitive neuroscience, pointed out that mammals evolved as social animals, and this process creates a network in the brain that supports social behavior and acquires three brain-powers: connecting, reading minds, and harmonizing. Introducing new perspectives such as the relationship between social brain function and mental illness, the investigation for the brain and mind continues. This article explores the periphery of design science from the “brain that produces design” and the “mind that receives design.”

Akio KOYAMA

Psychiatrist

Koyama was born in Tokyo and graduated from Hokkaido University School of Medicine in 1976. During this time, he was researching art therapy at a psychiatric hospital. Since 1984, he has been engaged in research on local public health administration, community care for the mentally handicapped, and prevention of epilepsy in young children as director of a public health center. Since 1989, he has been involved in education and research in occupational and environmental medicine as an assistant professor at his alma mater. He was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1997. He has worked on mental health measures in approximately 50 countries as a counselor of the Embassy in France, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Clinic, and Minister’s Secretariat Personnel Division Planning Officer and Advisor. Furthermore, he opened a clinic in 2006. Currently, he is involved in workplace labor management, health management, and consulting. Recently, he served on the board of the Japanese Association of Neuropsychiatric Clinics, Tokyo Association of Psychiatric Clinics, Japan Society for Occupational Mental Health, Japan Association of Occupational Health Law, and Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences (U.S.). His research presentations include “practical research on effective collaboration techniques between psychiatrists and workplaces for employment support for long-term patients with mental health problems,” Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare Clinical Research Report on Industrial Accident Diseases, 2022, and others. He has also published numerous papers and books. “Brain, Heart and Human” is one of his lifework themes.

Medium

“In the process of design, people create forms and embody new roles and their existence……How do we come into contact with the source of empathetic design that leads to shared value?”

The author asks this question. He pays multiple attention to these words, scientific facts and various events, such as Mathematician Kiyoshi Oka’s “Fuitsufuni(不一不二)”, aquatic animals’ “hydrodynamic perception”, neuroscience experiments on free will, Theo Janssen’s work “Strandbeest” which use the compressed air of the wind stored in the bottles as energy for activity and behave like organisms, and our own experience in daily life. He further deepens his thoughts on the act of design, which is considered a sensual, uncertain, and unscientific ability, to the depths of the ambiguous boundary between “the body that knows the connection with its surroundings of which it is unaware” and “the medium that surrounds the body,” the way the two seem to be one, and various aspects of the two.

“There is always a basis for the design, a path perceived from the various fragments of life and insights into all of it.” This article is a declaration of “Ambience Design” that considers form from the flow of medium rather than thinking about the form itself.

Tsunao Nagasaki

Designer / Professor at Tama Art University

Nagasaki was born in Tokyo in 1970. In 1993, he graduated from the Department of Japanese Language and Literature, School of Education, Waseda University. In 1995, he graduated from the Department of Industrial, Interior, and Craft Design, Industrial Design Course, College of Art and Design, Musashino Art University. After working at OKAMURA CORPORATION, he joined NAOTO FUKASAWA DESIGN in 2003. He is the Director/Senior Designer of NAOTO FUKASAWA DESIGN. As a part-time lecturer at Musashino Art University, College of Art and Design, Department of Science of Design (2010-2013), he participated in the establishment of the Department of Integrated Design, Faculty of Art and Design, Tama Art University, in 2013. Currently, he is a professor at the Department of Integrated Design. In 2018, he conceived an Ambience Design that was based on ecological psychology. Furthermore, he leads the activities of BRANCH and works on the practice and establishment of new methodologies for creation and design, such as research on “the power of form,” “the accuracy of harmony,” “the mechanism of atmosphere,” and “Nature” through creative activities in art and design.