What challenges should designers face now, as found at the GOOD DESIGN AWARDs.
FOCUSED ISSUES is a GOOD DESIGN AWARD initiative that depicts the future of design in society through the screening process.

FOCUSED ISSUES of this article
Design for expanding relationships
The “appropriateness of expansion” for sharing and spreading good wisdom and good design
2020.10.30
Yasuyuki Kawanishi, an architect, designer and facilitator, listed the theme “Design for expanding relationships” upon becoming a Focused Issues Director. Difficulties constantly haunt the aim to create awareness and increase interest among many people. As such, contours of the “appropriateness of expansion” could be seen in the selection of the Good Design Award.
Expansion is not About collecting “likes” or a lot of money
I took part as a judge for the Mobility unit of Good Design Award last year, but the trends for this year’s entries have changed unimaginably. Last year, there were many entries related to automatic driving technology.
In contrast, although there were entries competing with the latest technologies, there were also many with the themes “local community” and “relationships” that are related to my Focused Issues theme. There were many entries from the domain integrating the classic need of problem-solving demanded of design, and many were serious initiatives.
My theme of “Design for expanding relationships” in other words means sharing and spreading good wisdom and good design. I wanted to think About a well-honed way of how wisdom expands and how to expand wisdom. In these terms, what especially left an impression on me was “House for Marebito,” a guesthouse by VUILD, inc.
https://www.g-mark.org/en/gallery/winners/9e34f37b-803d-11ed-af7e-0242ac130002Today, as more people from the city visit the hilly and mountainous areas (intermediary areas between the fringes of plains and mountains) that they admire, this initiative used local resources and wisdom to create a small economic cycle, while also using the power of IT to provide 3D data of buildings to other regions. It allowed the contradictory global and local to coexist at a high level and the “appropriateness of expansion” and “expanse of expansion” was phenomenal.
Trying to expand something is not just About earning a number of “Likes” or raising a lot of money with crowd funding. Of course, these numbers are also important, but the “House for Marebito” was very piercing in that it solved the problems of the hilly and mountainous areas, while also expanding with fun.
Another impressionable entry was the “Design Movement on Campus” plan entered from Taiwan and an art festival called “Romantic Route 3 Art Festival.” These used the power of design and involved students and citizens in an attempt to change the state of schools, education, and the community.
The “Design Movement on Campus” plan was a scheme for establishing design as a foundation for education. In other words, it was an approach based not on instructions provided from above, but a way of thinking stating that developing people that can think and create independently is the root of education.
https://www.g-mark.org/en/gallery/winners/9e40bc34-803d-11ed-af7e-0242ac130002Including the other “Romantic Route 3 Art Festival,” Taiwan showed a clear awareness that nurturing talented personnel will lead to creating a better organization.
I felt somewhat envious of how Taiwan, including the government, made initiatives toward issues
https://www.g-mark.org/en/gallery/winners/9e3ec230-803d-11ed-af7e-0242ac130002Lastly, in terms of relationships of support, I wanted to strongly support “mi-chan's Sweets workshop,” which created a place for a relationship with the community and society for a young girl who is fighting a mental disorder and is good at making sweets. With a very limited budget, I am sure the designer faced difficulties, but I believe that this careful initiative is the very basis of design.
https://www.g-mark.org/en/gallery/winners/9e34c4d1-803d-11ed-af7e-0242ac130002Kawanishi Yasuyuki
Architect, Designer, Facilitator | President, ICHIBANSEN Co.,Ltd.
Born in Nara in 1976. Master graduated from the University of Chiba, Studied at the Royal Danish Academy School of Architecture as the guest student. After working at AREP-SNCF the group of French National Railway, he designed Nakamura Station for Tosa Kuroshio Railway, the resort train ‘Echigo TOKImeki Resort SETSUGEKKA’, trains, buses, houses, stations, shopping buildings, medical centers and welfare houses as the president of ICHIBANSEN Co.,Ltd. Nakamura Station had prized the Good Design Award 2010 Special Prize, the Watford Group Brunel Award 201, JCD Young Architect Award and others. Echigo TOKImeki Resort SETSUGEKKA had prized SBID The International Design Award 2016 Winner, IDA International Design Award 2016 Gold Winner and others. *Titles and profiles are those at the time of the director’s tenure