From April 15 to April 21, 2024, Milan steps into the limelight of the global design arena with a bustling line-up of events, exhibitions, and installations at Milan Design Week. Designers, architects, educators, automakers, and institutions will come together to share ideas that shape our present with a keen eye on the future of our environment. The practices of design play a pivotal role in cultivating a culture of mindful design, emphasizing sustainability as a core principle and essential value in the creative process. This ethos is beautifully encapsulated in the theme “Materia Natura” for this year’s edition.
Luxury automaker Lexus returns to this globally renowned event this year, exhibiting “Time,” a pair of interactive installations featuring new and original work by two leading global designers – both aimed at illuminating the future of human-centered design from the canvas of the world’s largest design event.
Since its founding 35 years ago, Lexus has continuously challenged the status quo in the luxury automotive space, pushing boundaries in products and services to create new experiences that respect every moment of a customer’s time.
Building on this mindset, “Time” explores how the era of software-defined hardware will infinitely expand the possibilities for personally tailored experiences, allowing future design to seamlessly anticipate and evolve with each individual.
The exhibition is divided between two installations within the same site. The indoor exhibit “Beyond The Horizon” by Hideki Yoshimoto/Tangent expresses a world of next-generation mobility that continues to evolve in limitless ways through software, complemented by the music of Keiichiro Shibuya that further invites visitors into an immersive space.
“8 Minutes 20 Seconds” by Marjan van Aubel will be exhibited outside, expressing the investment she shares with Lexus in pioneering new approaches to design and technology toward a carbon-neutral future.
Both exhibitions incorporate the next-generation Lexus electric vehicle LF-ZC, a concept that represents how the synergy of hardware and software can redefine the automotive experience.
Lexus has been a regular exhibitor at Milan Design Week for almost 20 years, collaborating with many leading designers and artists to create immersive experiences for visitors. The roll call of talent includes such internationally respected names as Philippe Nigro, Sou Fujimoto, Rhizomatiks, Germane Barnes, and Suchi Reddy.
“Time” will be on public view in the Art Point and Art Garden at Superstudio Pìu in Milan’s famous Tortona design district from April 16 to 21.
Designer profile –Hideki Yoshimoto /Tangent
Hideki Yoshimoto, founder of the international Tangent design and innovation brand, was the winner of the first Lexus Design Award in 2013, while still a student at the Royal College of Art in London. His winning lighting design “INAHO” was invited to participate in exhibitions around the world and went on to be developed as a commercial product.
Yoshimoto specializes in the progressive fusion of design and engineering. In addition to providing global luxury brands such as Hermès with designs and concepts, he is active in a wide range of fields, from technology-based new business development to urban schemes. In recent years, he has been involved in the evolution and transmission of Japanese culture, including the founding of Craft x Tech, an international initiative to connect traditional Japanese crafts and leading-edge technology.
Tangent is a design studio that aims to express the idea of “bringing technology closer to people’s lives and time, rather than thrusting it on them.” Its collaboration approach resonates with the relationship that Lexus aims to build between its customers and mobility.
Designer profile –Marjan van Aubel / Marjan van Aubel Studio
Marjan van Aubel is a solar designer from the Netherlands whose work explores innovations that combine sunlight and technology for a sustainable future. She is the director of the Marjan van Aubel Studio, which has produced award-winning creative activities aimed at incorporating solar energy into daily life.
Explaining her studio’s creative ethos, she says: “We will continue to create a future that combines sustainability, design, and solar technology, create lasting change through solar design, and bring solar power closer to life by incorporating it into our lives through buildings and objects. That’s what I’m aiming for.”
This idea connects with Lexus’ design vision and its aim for battery electric vehicles to deliver experiential value that is human-centered.
Van Aubel graduated from the Royal College of Art with a Master’s degree in Product Design and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Rietveld Academy Design Lab. Leading brand collaborations include COS, Timberland, and Swarovski to help accelerate the transition to solar energy globally. Her notable works include “Sunne,” “Current Table,” and “Power Plant;” and the roof design for the Netherlands Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai.
Composer profile–Keiichiro Shibuya
A Japanese composer, musician, and artist based in Tokyo and Paris, Keiichiro Shibuya graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts’ Department of Composition. His work encompasses cutting-edge electronic music, piano solos, operas, film scores, and sound installations. In 2012, Shibuya created the vocaloid opera The End, starring Hatsune Miku. The opera premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, with costumes designed by Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs, and since then has toured worldwide. In 2018, Shibuya premiered another opera called “Android Opera.” The opera features an AI-equipped android, which sings while conducting an orchestra. In 2021, Shibuya received a commission to create the opera Super Angels by the New National Theatre, Tokyo. In 2022, he performed the Android Opera MIRROR for Expo 2020 Dubai. The full 70-minute version of this opera was premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
Shibuya has also received recognition for his film scores. In 2020 and 2021, he was recognized at the 75th Mainichi Film Awards and received the 30th Japan Movie Critics Award for the film Midnight Swan.
Through his works, Shibuya continues to push the boundaries of technology, life, and death.
