About the Center for Designed Futures
Greeting
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.
Ryoichi Tamura
Objective
To create an international hub for design studies by connecting design studies with diverse research domains inside and outside Kyushu University, promote research in design studies, and create new domains of academic research.
- Education for hands-on acquisition of knowledge on design studies.
- Promotion of applied research that integrates design studies with other diverse research domains.
- Dissemination of design studies research output on the lifestyles, culture, and arts of the Asian region with international society.
- Pioneering of new domains in design studies.
- Industrialization and commercialization of research output to strategically apply it in society.
- Other matters related to education and research in the design studies domain.
Achieving the Missions
In order to concretely advance its six objectives, the Center has established three overarching missions.
Mission 1: In collaboration with the Faculty of Design, which serves as the Center’s supervising faculty, and other research organizations and affiliated organizations at Kyushu University, we will form flexible project teams drawing on diverse areas of expertise to conduct actionable and directly applicable design studies research.
Mission 2: Through industry-government-academia collaboration among the Center’s faculty members, private companies, and local governments, we will work to improve the quality and increase the quantity of seeds-and-needs matching to create more opportunities for concrete design studies research.
Mission 3: Through activities including the Association of Design Departments and Schools in Japanese Public Universities (Design Academia), Asia Digital Art Award (ADAA), and the SDGs Design International Awards, we will broaden and strengthen collaboration with domestic and international educational and research institutions to promote design studies research aimed at social implementation.
Through these three missions, we aim to contribute to the advancement of design studies research and to achieve social transformation through innovation.
