I am honored to be a part of the exhibition “Visionaries: Making Another Perspective” at at Kyoto city Kyosera Museum of Art curated by Noriko_Kawakami.

“Since 2013, I have been working on the “Moment” series since along with glass manufacture　WonderGlass. A name that has the subtext of “capture the moment”, based on the theme of “Water”. My first work in this series is FLOW[T], which captures a slice of the horizon line that forms the border between the land on which we live and the sea.

Each of these pieces has been made by a glassblower and workshop in Venice; a city surrounded by water where the constantly changing natural world can be experienced firsthand. Glass is a living material and if the maker does not listen to it and follow its inherent natural flow, it will break. As humans, our natural tendency is to master and control all that surrounds us. Glass lives a life of its own and the master must bow to its needs. I see the glass as a metaphor for man’s need to relinquish his mastery of the medium and learn to bend alongside of it, work with it and not against it.”

Photo: Koroda Takeru

Very honored to be part of the jury for the ADC 102nd Annual Awards! I will be judging the product design category along with other amazing creatives :)

DIMAD presents “JAPAN DESU”, a serie of exhibitions and activities that will showcase the creativity of leading Japanese designers and brands present around the world and that will take place at the Central de Diseño and Casa del Lector at Matadero Madrid.

“Activities will be carried out by experts who will bring the latest developments in the discipline to topics of interest to contemporary society: safe, connected and sustainable mobility for the cities of the future; architecture and design in Japan: graphics, fashion, product and interior design, video games, etc.

Among the featured guests are the Japanese designer based in New York, Nao Tamura; Giovanny Arroba, Senior Design Director of NISSAN, who will talk with Fabio Filippini, former design director of PININFARINA and independent consultant in Automotive Design; Cutu Mazuelos, CEO and partner of STONE DESIGNS.”

>Please stop by if you are in Madrid!
The info about my talk below:

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Location: Central de Diseño
Date: 7PM,8 November, 2022
Presenta: Antonio Luna, editor de ROOM Diseño
Modera: Marta Alonso de Mayice

I am thrilled to be part of Japan Design/Arts beyond borders International Symposium curated by Rossella Menegazzo at the University of Milan. Please stop by if you happen to be in Milan.

It will feature the participation of Japan’s most important designers and architects currently active on the international scene and Japanese and Italian designers who have written the history of design via intercultural synergies and collaborations centring on Milan.

The notables include Kengo Kuma, Natoto Fukasawa, Makio Hasuike, Toshiyuki Kita, Giorgetto Giugiaro, Setsu & Shinobu Ito, Andrea Branzi, and Reiko Sudo, as well as representatives of the younger generation such as Nao Tamura, Keiji Ashizawa, and Kosuke Araki.

The symposium focuses on contemporary Japanese design with its cultural implications, drawing on classical arts and the permeability of boundaries between creative idioms, from calligraphy to painting, arts applied to design, and architecture, and extending out to embrace the arts of flowers and scents. The categories of “fine arts” (bijutsu) and “applied arts” (kōgei) were borrowed from Europe in the late 19th century, while the concept of graphic design in contemporary terms replaced the concept of “technical-decorative design” (zuan) in the 1950s.

Ambientec team and I are very excited to collaborate with the master plant artist Satoshi Kawamoto and install 120 TURN+ lamps at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan for the SALONE DEL MOBILE.

I am thrilled to be one of the speakers at TEDxWasedaU, a TED TALK event hosted by Waseda University on June 26, 2022. The theme of this year is “Dear Us” and “Connection”.

I will speak about “the power of interconnection” and look back on my journey as a designer beginning at the age of 19. -In these times of Pandemic, war, racism, and rapid change, I hope that this talk will provide an opportunity to reaffirm the deep connections between us.

DATE: June 26th, 2022
LOCATION: Shibuya CROSS TOWER

EXHIBITION
The Tokyo Toilet / Milano
June 3 – 12, 2022
The installation showcases thirteen 1:1 scale segments of the toilets that are part of The Tokyo Toilet project. SKWAT, an artist collective from Tokyo, teams up with Japanese artist DAIDO MORIYAMA and graphic designer Satoshi Machiguchi, to introduce The Tokyo Toilet, realised within the public space of Tokyo, in Milan during Milan Salone Design Week.

Happy to introduce CASCADE and to be part of SOTTOVETRO an exhibition curated by Jean Blanchaert by WonderGlass!

PUBLIC DATES: 08.04. 2022 – 15.05. 2022
Opening Hours: Daily – 10:00AM – 5:00PM
LOCATION: Fondazione Berengo Art Space
Campiello della Pescheria 4, Murano
……….

“Made in WonderGlass” is pleased to present SottoVetro, an exhibition curated by renowned art critic Jean Blanchaert within the prestigious surroundings of the Fondazione Berengo, in conjunction with the 59th Venice Biennale and the 2022 edition of Homo Faber.

WonderGlass intends to take visitors into an intimate landscape with this exhibition, presenting each artist’s secret – recipe – for creativity.
This coterie of contemporary artists and their artistic approaches to glass create a unified landscape of vibrant patterns, enticing textures, and pulsing colour palettes that spread their visual appeal. The observer is asked to explore the various combinations of materials that provide a powerful semantic effect, presenting itself in radically distinct experiences each time.

I am delighted to announce our new project TURNPLUS by Ambientec won Archiproducts Design Award 2021!

Honored to be a part of an exhibition ISSEY MIYAKE WATCH 25 watches by 12 designers at 2121 DESIGN SIGHT

October 23 (Sat) – November 3 (Wed), 2021

New Sage series from Ambientec currently showing at IFFT “+TALENTS” Tokyo!

Very honor to be a part of meaningful exhibition “Here We Are! Women in Design 1900 – Today” at Vitra Design Museum among other great talents that I admire.

Vitra Design Museum

23.09.2021 – 06.03.2022

“Be it in furniture design, fashion design, industrial design, or interior design, women have contributed crucially to the development of modern design, both creatively and commercially. And yet books about the history of design often fail to mention them. The exhibition »Here We Are! Women in Design 1900 – Today« at the Vitra Design Museum seeks to help redress the balance. Presenting women designers from the past 120 years, it tells a new, many-voiced story of design against the background of the struggle for equal rights and recognition. Around eighty women in design are showcased in the exhibition, including protagonists of modernism like Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand, Lilly Reich, and Clara Porset, business leaders like Florence Knoll and Armi Ratia, but also lesser-known figures like the social reformer Jane Addams. Contemporary positions and future outlooks are represented by such designers as Matali Crasset, Patricia Urquiola, Julia Lohmann, as well as the collectives Matri-Archi(tecture) and Futuress.”

On the occasion of the Venice Biennale of Architecture this unique exhibition brings together the worlds of contemporary art and cutting-edge design through the medium of glass.

Location Murano
Fondazione Berengo Art Space/ Compiello della Pescheria 4 Murano
Daily 10am-5pm
Location Venezia
Berengo Collection/ Calle Larga San Marco 412-413 Venezia
Daily 10am-5pm/ 8pm-10pm, Wednesday closed

Milan, March 2021-Japanese light design brand Ambientec creates sophisticated portable lamps that blend a jeweler’s craftsmanship with the rigor of optical science.

“Light is a powerful symbol of vitality and hope, and TURN+ is intended to be a light that you keep close by, to keep you company through all the moods and moments of your life. A lamp that you light by gently touching it is one that can create a strong sensory and emotional bond.” TURN+ can provide 500 hours of light without electricity, and is fully waterproof.

We would like to share TURN collection with people all over the world and hopefully provide light in times of darkness- Nao Tamura”

WonderGlass, New project for The Nova Building in Westminster, London with a new Flow[T] ceiling bespoke installation!

THE NOVA BUILDING
“The Nova Building is ultra-modern, beautifully engineered and architecturally daring. A statement for living amid the grandeur of Westminster and Belgravia.”

ISSEY MIYAKE WATCH
New color/ Khaki is for sale as a limited model at the Issey Miyake Shop!

ISSEY MIYAKE WATCH
“1/6 ワンシックス”に新色バンドが登場
カーキ色の革バンドを組合せた精悍な印象の別注色モデルが登場します”

Sage lamp for Ambientec won interior Design’s 14th annual”Best of Year 2019″ in the Task Lamp category. Thanks for the amazing honor Interior Design.