Press Release
Radiance of Nature with Urushi Lighting by Yu Watanabe Receives the Silver A' Design Award in Lighting Products and Fixtures Design
The international grand jury of the 2023 - 2024 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Yu Watanabe for lighting products and fixtures design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 18, 2024 /DesignNewswire/ Radiance of Nature with Urushi Lighting by Yu Watanabe has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Lighting Products and Fixtures Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2023 - 2024 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the Silver A' Design Award Means
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About Radiance of Nature with Urushi Lighting
Derived from sustainably harvested natural sap in Japan, Urushi lacquer is applied to bamboo creating an immersive space amongst tree-like forms. Unlike Western culture, where people remove shadows from space, this project intentionally creates shadows as a part of aesthetic beauty. The columns of Urushi can reflect a candle-like light in a dark room, giving off a luminous glow that gives a sense of the depth of darkness. The unique properties of shape and light create an enchanting interplay of light reflections and shadows evoking a microcosmic space reminiscent of nature.
About Yu Watanabe
Through various projects in his career as a Creative Director, Yu became interested in exploring creative approaches to address emerging social and environmental issues. To further develop these ideation skills, Yu completed a MA Material Futures at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK. Yu’s research focuses on how design can function to address increasingly complex social issues through the collision of diverse perspectives, materials, technology, culture, design and science while leveraging his knowledge in effective communication from his career in the advertising industry.
Award Record
With this recognition, Yu Watanabe is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Lighting Products and Fixtures Design Award
The A' Lighting Design Award is an international lighting design competition recognizing good lighting designs by best lighting designers and brands worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to lighting designers, lighting architects, industrial design studios and lighting product manufacturers from all countries. Entries typically include chandeliers, pendant lights, wall sconces, table lamps, floor lamps and outdoor lights. Awarded lighting designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/lighting
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/154276
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/154276
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!154276
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/348526
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://yuwatanabe.design/
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Radiance of Nature with Urushi Lighting
- Function
- Lighting
- Category
- Lighting Products and Fixtures Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Furniture & Home and Electronics & Appliances
- Colors
- Dark Slate Gray, Black and Dark Slate Blue
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Yu Watanabe
- Country
- Japan
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2023 - 2024
- Design ID
- #154276
Credits
- Image Credits
- ALL Images: Yu Watanabe, 2023 Sound in Video: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Ambiment, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Urushi lacquer is produced from natural sap sustainably harvested in Japan. Unfortunately, the traditional craft of Urushi is in decline due to the emergence of alternative materials. This project aims to revitalise this craft and create a space that connects people with nature. Urushi also has qualities that reflect even the smallest light. Through the arrangement of tree-like shapes, the play of light and shadows can immerse people in a microcosmic space reminiscent of nature.
- Inspiration
- Unlike the West, where people often remove shadows from space, the Japanese embrace shadows as a part of aesthetic beauty. In Junichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows, he mentions the true value of lacquerware is that it reflects a candle-like light in a dark room, giving off a luminous glow that gives a sense of the depth of darkness and invites one into a meditative space. Through this project, Urushi is used to reflect a small flickering light while embracing shadows.
- Research
- Design research was conducted through hands-on experiments, thesis research, and collaboration with experts such as craftsmen, harvesters, and product designers. Hands-on experiments involved experimenting with more than 20 natural materials in combination with lacquer, while on the theoretical side, we investigated the relationship between how traditional Japanese lighting and space are perceived, and the relationship between Japanese gardens, modernism, and minimalism.
- Challenge
- Why can’t everyday objects also be an opportunity for people to connect with nature? Urushi, a fully repairable, biodegradable, and naturally produced lacquer, allows people to create products embodying the cycle of nature. This ancient Japanese craft founded in principles of sustainability is revitalized through a modern design in this project
- Realization and Technology
- Urushi is extracted from trees in small amounts, applied to natural materials such as bamboo. Although highly durable, Urushi products can be returned to nature when disposed of breaking down naturally under UV light. Crafted by hand by skilled artisans, each product is created in respect of the slow, yet continuous production of natural material. This circular design has the potential to restore the relationship between nature and people contrasting the modern reliance on single-use plastics.
- Operation and Interaction
- Through the arrangement of tree-like shapes, the project seeks to evoke a sense of being in a forest. The play of light and shadows allows viewers to immerse themselves in a microcosmic space reminiscent of nature. This project not only explores the fascination of materials but also encourages the viewer to look at the materials through the lense of their backgrounds, narratives and connections with nature.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in August 2022 in London and Japan, and finished in June 2023 in London, and was exhibited in Saint Central Martins in London.
- Specifications
- The object consists of 16 cylindrical lights. Diameter: 11 cm to 14 cm. It comes in four sizes: size S 60 cm, size M 90 cm, size L 128 cm, and size XL 167 cm. Urushi lacquer is applied on the bamboo by hand by Urushi craftsmen. The bamboo is cut by artisans who cut the bamboo vertically, revealing the cut section on a dare.
- Keywords
- Lighting, Sustainable, Traditional, Revitalising, Cultural, Meditative, Darkness, Space, Installation, Product,
