About the KUKAN DESIGN AWARD
What is the KUKAN DESIGN AWARD?
As our society grows increasingly complex, our values too are changing, from valuing a wealth of things to valuing wealth in our hearts, and in this we face many challenges. The mission behind the KUKAN DESIGN AWARD is to mine the solutions of our society’s multi-faceted challenges and break through to a hopeful future.
Activities associated with the KUKAN DESIGN AWARD focus on creating places and opportunities for the myriad people passionate about design to assemble and collectively hone their craft. These activities bring to light new design values and talent, both domestic and international, and build a creative platform serving as an index for future generations.
In Japanese culture, the concept of KUKAN (space) regards not only physical space but also Ma (the space between)—between the hearts of those present in that space, the changes of affairs, and the passage of time. To design spaces is to create tremendous potential for people, society, and epochs.
Spatial design has the power to move people and enrich our society.
We believe in the power of spatial design.
Message from the president
This is the beginning of the Kukan Design Award.
Various awards held by DSA and JCD have merged to give birth to Japan’s most prestigious spatial design award.There are infinite possibilities within the obscurity of the word “space.” As time goes on, the skills and abilities a designer must have become diversified. Over time, new concepts of values are born. Design associations’ mission is to restructure the environment into a better place where such concepts can be expressed and presented. It’s also essential to promote the design’s “now” not only throughout the country but also across the border and pass it down to later generations. Now, we cross over the borders of associations to begin a new Design Award, to start a new page in the history of spatial design.
We are looking forward to your participants.
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Japan Commercial Environmental Design Association Japan Design Space Association |
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| Vision | Creating new values of spatial design and building a creative society will lead to the enrichment of people’s lives and society. |
| Purpose | By finding outstanding designs and excellent designers and introducing them to the world, we will expand new possibilities of spatial design. |
Introduction of the host organization
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Japan Commercial Environmental Design Association |
Creating a new design for the commercial
The Japan Commercial Environmental Design Association (JCD) was founded in 1961 to establish the professional role of commercial environmental design and to improve the quality of communication in urban society as well as the environments playing host to commercial activities. JCD was incorporated in 1963. JCD is composed of creatives from a vast array of spatial design fields, including interior design, architecture, spatial production, planning, lighting design, and graphic design. Activities like the presentation of design awards; holding symposia, educational events, and seminars; and the publication of periodicals and books expands our influence beyond Japan to the international stage. Catalyzed by recent societal changes, we are diversifying these activities in service of creating new value in design. |
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Japan Design Space Association |
Aiming for Creation of Spatial Communication DesignSpatial design is about designing extremely highly interactive, impressive space by infusing messages that need to be delivered on the spot through the use of various techniques to enable articulation of ideas and offer thrilling and exciting experiences. Our activities as a group of creators focus on producing vibrant interactive space ranging from basic show windows & displays to exhibitions, showrooms, promotions, cultural, business and entertainment space, as well as architectural structures, cities, and landscapes. The Japan Design Space Association (DSA), in our official capacity as an incorporated association, is committed to pursuing public-interest activities that can contribute to economy, industry, society and culture through enhancing design technique advancements, organizing design awards, and facilitating symposiums, international exchanges, studies, publication and other promotional and educational activities.→Click here for the official website |
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Sponsoring organization |
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Graphic design is two-dimensional and spatial design is three-dimensional, however functional design of both can be regarded as ‘four-dimensional’ integrating the fourth dimension ‘time’ such as aging, customer traffic line and the spirit of the times. In case of spatial design including towns and cities, for example, impression of a place when it is busy with tourists and when it is not is different. This is because change of time in the tourist season affects the shape of spatial design, which proves that space, cities and architecture are four-dimensional after thorough investigation. *1 Golden ratio…Ratio of rectangle discovered in the beauty of nature in ancient Greek, whose proportions are perfectly balanced. Issei Kitagawa/GRAPH Representative director of GRAPH. Born in 1965 in Kasai city, Hyogo prefecture. Member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) and jury member of NY ADC and D&AD Awards. Received many awards including TDC Awards and JAGDA New Designer Awards. He has been exploring technology to produce “printing which cannot be thrown away” and proposing “what the design should be as management resources” from the perspectives of both managers and designers, which attracted diverse clients from local small and medium-sized enterprises to international luxury brands. “Henn-na Hotel” which he took charge of its naming and branding received a certificate from Guinness World Records as “the world’s first hotel run by robots” in winter 2016. ＜Major exhibitions＞ |
