48 Hour Design Innovation Workshop
Tokyo, 23-25 November 2008
The 48 Hour Innovation Workshop was held at the Design Innovation Forum 2008, University of Tokyo, 23-25 November 2008. It was organised by Nikkei Design and the University of Tokyo, sponsored by Toyota, Fuji Xerox, Rinnai, Toyo Exteriors, Uchida Yoko and supported by The British Embassy, Tokyo.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and the UK, Nikkei Design, Japan's influential monthly business design magazine, invited the Helen Hamlyn Centre to organise a Design Innovation workshop on the Challenge model as part of the Design Innovation 2008 Forum and exhibition hosted by the University of Tokyo.
The event started with an evening reception at the British Embassy in Tokyo. Jim Dawton, Ben Davies of Rodd Design and Hazel Macmillan of Wolff Olins led teams composed of in-house designers from the sponsoring companies, engineering students from the University of Tokyo and doctoral students from the Engineering Design Centre at Cambridge University. Each team was partnered with a disabled user.
The brief was on the theme of disaster: 'Design a product, service or system (communication or otherwise) that will be of fundamental assistance to a range of people in the event of a natural disaster (earthquake, floods, typhoon or fire) within a high-density urban environment.
Team Ben led by Ben Davies (Rodd Design) won the audience and design prize, Team Kuku led by Hazel Macmillan (Wolff Olins) the technical prize and Team See led by Jim Dawton the theme prize.
