Tokyo Midtown Design Hub 110th Exhibition
Roots of Future: Exploring the Past to Discover the Future
- Year: 2024
- Planner: Design Hub
- Tags: ProductGraphicInteriorExhibitions
BASIC INFORMATION
Tokyo Midtown Design Hub, in collaboration with Japan Design Organizations As One (DOO), hosts “Roots of Future: Exploring the Past to Discover the Future.”
DOO is a council of design associations representing seven design fields (spatial, graphic, interior, industrial, jewelry, package & signage; previously eight fields including craft).
Based on the Japanese design archive project led by DOO Japan Design Museum Establishment Study Committee, the exhibition presents two parts – the Chronicle section looking back on Japanese design from 1950s to 2020s, and the Discovery section where Japanese designs symbolizing contemporary topics but transcending time and genre are identified with their roots.
Focusing on the winners of design awards hosted by the seven associations, selections, and the winners of Good Design Award run by Japan Institute of Design Promotion, the headquarter of which is located in the Design Hub, the exhibition showcases about 90 Japanese designs from 1950s to 2020s.
Through the examination of past Japanese designs from various viewpoints, we hope that visitors of all generations are touched by the attraction of design and start thinking about the future lifestyle, society, and design.
Dates: Friday 20 September – Friday 25 October, 2024
Open daily 11:00–19:00 (–20:00 on 27–29 September)
Admission: Free
Venue: Tokyo Midtown Design Hub (Midtown Tower 5F)
Organizer: Tokyo Midtown Design Hub
Co-organizer: Japan Design Organizations As One (DOO)
Direction: Takahiro Tsuchida
Creative Direction, Graphic Design: Masaaki Hiromura
Spatial Design: Kei Harada
EXHIBITION DETAILS
Director’s Message
The significance of looking back on past designs is, primarily, to keep them alive in the future. To do so, one needs to have a viewpoint to understand the history and the present in a continuous flow. While designs belonging to different genres develop independently, they also influence each other as they evolve. They also reflect changing generations and society, while at the same time prompting such changes.
ROOTS OF FUTURE focuses on the rich flow of design in the postwar Japan to identify the roots of future designs. Shedding new light on movements that have been created and appreciated in the history of over seventy years, the exhibition rearranges them under six themes and presents them with original interpretations. Exhibits were selected with the extensive support of DOO (Japan Design Organizations As One) member organizations. The selection, helped also by the knowledge and experiences of Good Design Award, is characterized by broad genre coverage and archival excellence.
How things that we see now are linked to the future? To know their possibilities, we need to see things as starting points and work our imaginations. This is why the exhibition often crosses genres and generations to link multiple works. Things that will derive from these works in the future will be definitely new and unprecedented. I believe that the accumulations of such leaps will continue to add abundance to the flow of design.
Takahiro Tsuchida
Born in 1970. After working as a corporate employee, became independent as a freelancer in 2001. Based on interviews and researches at home and abroad, writes articles for professional magazines and other publications. A parttime lecturer at Tokyo University of Arts and Kuwasawa Design School. Is also the editor of Ilmm, a design magazine.