Lexus Design Award 2017 Grand Prix Winner Announced at the Amazing "LEXUS YET" Pavilion in Milan | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website

April 3, 2017―Lexus International today announced the Grand Prix winner of the Lexus Design Award 2017―PIXEL by Hiroto Yoshizoe―leading this prestigious international event to a peak of excitement. Lexus Design Award 2017 drew 1,152 entries from 63 countries under the theme of YET.

"The Lexus Design Award always presents a fascinating survey of the issues currently engaging young designers, and what they consider to be the most important challenges and compelling opportunities for design today. However, the quality and scale of ambition of the submissions to this year's award program was truly exceptional. It was very difficult for us to whittle them all down to twelve finalists, then four prototype winners and finally to the Grand Prix winner, although every stage of the process generated a feisty and enjoyable debate. Each of the four prototype winners has wrestled with complex and significant issues, from the plight of refugees and other homeless people and providing environmental protection for buildings in a beguiling and poetic way, to fusing traditional craftsmanship with emerging technologies and encouraging children to make and play musical instruments. Eclectic and original though their responses are, all the finalists have addressed the defining theme of the Lexus Design Award 2017, YET, with tremendous imagination, versatility and aplomb." said Alice Rawsthorn, Lexus Design Award 2017 judge and a design commentator.

Hiroto Yoshizoe commented, "I'm so surprised and honored to receive this prize from Lexus Design Award. I would like to thank Alex and Daniel of Snarkitecture for all their mentorship, also to all the people who have supported me on this project and of course to Lexus for giving me this amazing opportunity."

First launched in 2013 to stimulate ideas for a better tomorrow, Lexus is celebrating the 5th anniversary of this international design competition which supports up-and-coming designers and creators worldwide. The Grand Prix winner was chosen by an elite global creative design panel after presentations by the four prototype finalists. The works of all 12 finalists―four prototype winners and eight panel winners―are on display at the LEXUS YET pavilion, revealing how they would apply the 'YET' philosophy in original and innovative ways.

LEXUS YET will be held April 4th through April 9th at the La Triennale di Milano, the Design and Art Museum in Parco Sempione, Milan, central to Milan Design Week, the world's largest design exhibition, also known as Salone Del Mobile.

This event marks the tenth edition for Lexus International at Milan Design Week, highlighting the brand's long standing passion for design and innovation. To celebrate this significant juncture, Lexus enlisted the cooperation of Architect, Designer and Professor Neri Oxman of the MIT Media Lab and her research and design team, The Mediated Matter Group. An acclaimed creative pioneer operating at the leading edge of architecture and design, Oxman is known for design innovation that is inspired and informed by the natural world. Oxman's vision of harmonizing "nature" and its seeming opposite "technology" resonates strongly with the Lexus 'YET' philosophy^*.

In addition to the Lexus Design Award 2017 display, the LEXUS YET exhibition is composed of three following areas where visitors will experience the exciting and infinite potential of YET through immersive and engaging installations.

ANCIENT YET MODERN: Created by Neri Oxman and The Mediated Matter Group, MIT Media Lab. Inspired by Lexus' 'YET' philosophy and created for the opening space, this installation aims to create the experience of being grounded YET suspended by light―a wave YET a particle. Utilizing an ancient material YET a modern technology, The Mediated Matter Group debuts Glass 3D Printing at architectural scales.

STATIC YET DYNAMIC: By exploring things from many angles, we are able to see beyond the obvious and discover the new and unexpected. This Static YET Dynamic installation reveals the Lexus UX Concept car, and expresses Lexus Brave Design. The Lexus' UX Concept car embodies our 'YET' philosophy. This expression of a progressive and strong YET artistic and premium product further enhances Lexus' unique brand position which challenges conventional ideas about luxury.

RETROSPECTIVE: This event marks Lexus' 10th edition at Milan Design Week, highlighting the brand's long standing passion for design and innovation. As we celebrate this opportunity, we take a look back at our 9 years of design inspiration. Each edition highlights one moment in time through 24 frames.

^*The 'YET' philosophy drives Lexus to push the boundaries of creativity by fusing seemingly incompatible elements. It says "Don't compromise; harmonize." The resulting synergy sparks breakthroughs, while revealing possibilities beyond imagination.

Lexus Design Award 2017
From left
Snarkitecture (Mentor),
Hiroto Yoshizoe (Grand Prix Winner),
Yoshihiro Sawa (President, Lexus International)
Lexus Design Award 2017 Group shot

More information and pictures can be found on

Lexus Design Event: www.lexus-int.com/lexus-design

Lexus Design Event Retrospective: www.lexus-int.com/design/the-lexus-design-event-at-10-years-old

Lexus Design Award: www.lexusdesignaward.com

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

Official hashtags: #LexusDesignAward; #MilanDesignWeek; #LexusDesignEvent;

Lexus Design Award 2017 Entries Selected for Prototype Development

HAVING NOTHING, AND YET POSSESSING EVERYTHING

Title	HAVING NOTHING, AND YET POSSESSING EVERYTHING
Designer (Citizenship)	Ahran Won (South Korea)
Country of residence	USA
Description	A capsule for mobile living, Having nothing YET Possessing everything
Mentor	Neri and Hu

Title	PIXEL
Designer (Citizenship)	Hiroto Yoshizoe (Japan)
Country of residence	Japan
Description	A structure to experience the existence of Light YET Shadow
Mentor	Snarkitecture

Title	PLAYER'S PFLUTE
Designer (Citizenship)	Jia Wu (China)
Country of residence	China
Description	Vegetable YET a Musical instrument provides fun and learning experience
Mentor	Max Lamb

Title	STRUCTURAL COLOR - STATIC YET CHANGING
Designer (Citizenship)	Jessica Fügler (USA)
Country of residence	USA
Description	A rug appears Static in design YET Changes with the needs of the user
Mentor	Elena Manferdini

Lexus Design Award 2017 Panel Exhibits

Title	BUOYANT MEASURING SPOON FOR THE BLIND
Designer (Citizenship)	Eunjin Park (South Korea)
Country of residence	South Korea
Description	A measuring spoon with Unseen YET Visualized tactile graduations for the blind.

Title	THE LANDSCAPE OF PAPER
Designer (Citizenship)	Kuniko Maeda (Japan)
Country of residence	UK
Description	Disposable YET Upcycled material using traditional and modern technology.

Title	MASS PRODUCTION TO UNIQUE ITEMS
Designer (Citizenship)	Group name: TAKEHANAKE-Bungorogama Yoshifumi Takehana (Japan) Bungo Okuda (Japan) Akira Okuda (Japan)
Country of residence	Japan
Description	Mass produced YET One-of-a-kind ceramics created using a portable kiln.

Title	PAPER KETTLE
Designer (Citizenship)	Ryo Katayama (Japan)
Country of residence	Japan
Description	Combustible YET Fire-Resistant paper kettle.

Title	PLATANACEAE
Designer (Citizenship)	Paula Cermeño (Peru)
Country of residence	Switzerland
Description	Banana leaf bandages that out performs Synthetic materials YET are Biodegradable and soothing.

Title	POD: HOMELESS YET HOME
Designer (Citizenship)	Group Name: MODlab Eric Schwartzbach (USA) Benjamin Ward (USA)
Country of residence	USA
Description	Temporary shelter for displaced populations. Homeless YET Home.

Title	RETROSPECTION PROJECT / TIME TUNE RADIO
Designer (Citizenship)	Takuro Sanda (Japan)
Country of residence	Japan
Description	Hi-tech YET Retro radio tunes in programs from past and present.

Title	TRAFFIC LIGHT SYSTEM
Designer (Citizenship)	Evgeny Arinin (Russia)
Country of residence	Russia
Description	Simple YET Sophisticated traffic light.

Judge and Mentor Profiles

Judges

Paola Antonelli, Judge

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. She has lectured at TED, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and several other international conferences. 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 States of Design, a book about the diversity and variety of design fields that exist today.

Aric Chen, Judge

Aric Chen / Curator Aric Chen is Lead Curator for Design and Architecture at M+, the new museum for visual culture currently under construction in Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District. He previously served as Creative Director of Beijing Design Week, leading the successful relaunch of that event in 2011 and 2012. Chen has curated and organized numerous exhibitions and projects at museums, biennials and other events internationally, and has been a frequent contributor to publications including The New York Times, Monocle, Architectural Record and PIN-UP.

Toyo Ito, Judge

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), Taiwan University, College of Social Sciences, 'Minna no Mori' Gifu Media Cosmos, etc. Projects Under development include: National Taichung Theater, New Athletic Field and Sports Park in Aomori (tentative title) and several others. Among his many honors are the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize, Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, Royal Gold Medal from The Royal Institute of British Architects and the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Birgit Lohmann, Judge

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, Judge

Alice Rawsthorn / Design Commentator Alice Rawsthorn writes about design in the International New York Times and frieze. Her latest book Hello World: Where Design Meets Life explores design's impact on our lives: past, present and future. She speaks on design at global events including TED and the World Economic Forum's annual meetings at Davos, Switzerland. Based in London, Alice is chair of trustees of the Chisenhale Gallery and the contemporary dance group Michael Clark Company, and a trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery. She was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to design and the arts.

Yoshihiro Sawa, Judge

Yoshihiro Sawa / President of Lexus International Yoshihiro Sawa graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering and Design from Kyoto Institute of Technology. He has held a number of design-related positions since joining Toyota Motor Corporation in 1980, including Chief Officer of Global Design, Planning Division. He became President of Lexus International in April 2017.

Mentors

Neri & Hu, Mentor

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, Mentor

Max Lamb / Designer Max Lamb's work plays with the tradition of the working rural landscape―the beach as foundry, the quarry as workshop, felled yew trees of the Chatsworth estate as subject and source material. He is equally fascinated by the city, and his ability to adapt and respond to different environments produces designs that are uniquely of their time and place. Max is not committed to a single material or process, nor is he attracted to design as a means to solve problems. Rather he exploits the qualities inherent in a material to draw out its natural tendencies and beauty. His methods are high- and low-tech, and he is both designer and manufacturer, collaborating with foundries and factories as the scale or complexity of the project necessitates. However, there is continuity in the principles that he applies―honesty to material, a celebration of the process and of human capability, and its limitations.

Elena Manferdini, Mentor

Elena Manferdini / Designer and Architect Elena Manferdini, founder and owner of Atelier Manferdini, with offices in Venice, 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 internationally renowned companies such 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, Mentor

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.

ABOUT LEXUS DESIGN AWARD

First launched in 2013, the Lexus Design Award is an international design competition that targets up-and-coming creators from around the world. The award seeks to foster the growth of ideas that contribute to society by supporting designers and creators whose works can help to shape a better future. This provides a unique opportunity for four finalists to work with globally recognized designer as a mentor to create prototypes of their designs, and then exhibit them at one of the design calendar's most important events.

LEXUS YET EXHIBIT OVERVIEW

Event Title	LEXUS YET
Duration	April 4 - April 9, 10:30-22:00 (Press preview: April 3, 11:00-18:00)
Venue	La Triennale di Milano, Viale Alemagna 6, Milan, Italy
Theme	YET
Exhibits	"YET" created by featured designer The 12 finalist designs of the Lexus Design Award 2017 (4 prototypes and 8 panel displays) Retrospective of Lexus' ten times at Milan Design Week
Organizer	Lexus International

DESIGNER PROFILES

Neri Oxman and the Mediated Matter Group

An Architect, Designer, Inventor and Associate Professor based at the MIT Media Lab, Oxman pioneered the field of Material Ecology, which considers computation, fabrication, the environment and the material itself inseparable dimensions of design. Oxman's research and design team―The Mediated Matter Group―operate at the intersection of computational design, digital fabrication, materials science and synthetic biology; and applies that knowledge to design across disciplines and scales, from micro to building scale. Mediated Matter's work is included in the permanent collections of Cooper Hewitt, MoMA, SFMOMA, Centre Georges Pompidou, MFA Boston, and FRAC Orléans, amongst other museums. Oxman is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including a Graham Foundation Award (2008), the Earth Award (2009), the Vilcek Prize (2014), and the BSA Women in Design Award (2014). She is a Carnegie Pride of America Honoree (2014), and was named to ROADS' 100 Most Daring Cross-Disciplinary Thinkers in the World (2015). Oxman's work and innovations have received recognition at the World Economic Forum and the White House.

The MIT Media Lab transcends known boundaries and disciplines by actively promoting a unique, antidisciplinary culture that emboldens unconventional mixing and matching of seemingly disparate research areas. Designers, nanotechnologists, data visualization experts, mechanical engineers, material scientists, industry researchers, and pioneers of computer interfaces work side by side to invent―and reinvent―how humans experience, and can be aided by, technology. More information at www.media.mit.edu.

ANCIENT YET MODERN
Created by Neri Oxman and The Mediated Matter Group,
MIT Media Lab in Collaboration with Lexus
RETROSPECTIVE

ABOUT LEXUS

Since its U.S. market debut in 1989, Lexus has earned a worldwide reputation for high-quality products and exemplary customer service. Renowned for the superior reliability of its vehicles, Lexus is the luxury hybrid leader, offering hybrids that combine innovative technology and premier luxury. To date, Lexus has grown into 90+ markets worldwide. The evolution of Lexus is not only reflected in the progressive designs of its latest vehicles, but also in the brand's mission to captivate the next generation of luxury consumers with consciousness, products, and services that are visionary, original and exciting. http://www.lexus-int.com

LEXUS YET

Neri Oxman's Interview

Downloads (Videos)

LEXUS YET
Neri Oxman's Interview

Downloads (Images)

ANCIENT YET MODERN
Long shot
ANCIENT YET MODERN
Caustics 01
ANCIENT YET MODERN
Caustics 02
ANCIENT YET MODERN
Caustics 03
LDA Long shot
LDA PROTOTYPE
HAVING NOTHING, AND YET POSSESSING EVERYTHING
LDA PROTOTYPE
HAVING NOTHING, AND YET POSSESSING EVERYTHING
LDA PROTOTYPE
PIXEL
LDA PROTOTYPE
PIXEL
LDA PROTOTYPE
PLAYER'S PFLUTE
LDA PROTOTYPE
PLAYER'S PFLUTE
LDA PROTOTYPE
STRUCTURAL COLOR - STATIC YET CHANGING
LDA PROTOTYPE
STRUCTURAL COLOR - STATIC YET CHANGING
STATIC YET DYNAMIC
Long shot UX
STATIC YET DYNAMIC
Long shot Caustics
STATIC YET DYNAMIC UX
STATIC YET DYNAMIC
Caustics
RETROSPECTIVE
Long shot
RETROSPECTIVE
Long shot
RETROSPECTIVE
Close up
Lexus Design Award 2017
From left: Snarkitecture (Mentor), Hiroto Yoshizoe (Grand Prix Winner), Yoshihiro Sawa (President, Lexus International)
Lexus Design Award 2017 Group shot