In this era of unprecedented levels of societal changes, the concepts and territories of art, which are also changing qualitatively, are expanding at a rapid pace. In the 20th century where prionity was given to economic growth, the role of design was to create value by “adding color or form” at the end of the production process.

In order to solve all the complex issues left behind by the society of the 20th century, a multidisciplinary and multiperspective approach needs to be adopted to analyze the causes, needs, and solutions to these problems which can ultimately lead to concrete ideas and solutions. Here, design is an effective method to incorporate into all stages of the creation process to propose and verify potential solutions. This real role of design is increasingly being recognized today.

As this fundamental social role and expectation for design is rising, as a site of design studies and research, we believe that it is necessary to reconstruct the concept and methodology of design studies.

With that, the Center for Designed Futures of Kyushu University was established in January 2017 with the purpose of promoting design studies and research by connecting design studies with other research fields within and outside of the university, and at the same time, to create new territories of academic research through collaboration with other design universities to form an international base for design research. Its aim is to promote the speedy implementation in society of the fruits of this research center created by the development of academic research by collaborating with the public sector, the private sector, and the people to ultimately actively contribute to the creation of the future society.