News

Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. won the "Milano Design Award 2016 for Best Engagement by IED" for our exhibit on the theme of "Imagine New Days" at Milan Design Week 2016, one of the world's largest design-related events, held from April 12-17 in Milan, Italy.

The Milano Design Award is an award with a Grand Prize plus prizes in five categories, sponsored by the Italian cultural organization Elita and now in its sixth year. Best Engagement by IED, in which Aisin Seiki won the award this year, is a new category established this year. It recognizes outstanding installations that connect visitors to the exhibition concept and create environments that enchant people who interact with them. Aisin Seiki became the first supplier to receive the award, out of 1,135 exhibitors with booths at this year's Milan Design Week.

◎Comment from Yuichiro Oka, General Manager, Design Department, Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd.
We have been working with the "Imagine New Days" concept since we first started participating in Milan Design Week. The first two times we employed advanced technology to portray a futuristic world, but this time we produced the exhibition space by hand using sewing machines to present an analog future. There were friendly smiles on the faces of people trying out sewing machines in the bright, airy venue we produced, as if they had rediscovered the joy of making things, which forms the basis of our shared humanity. It offered a vision of a future where people will not only be able to accomplish things without effort through advanced technology, but also to enjoy themselves in a hands-on, analog and non-goal-oriented behavior. Meanwhile, in another installation conveying Aisin's distinctive worldview, Aisin was represented by gears overhead spinning reliably and precisely, while on the floor a bright, sparkling future was expressed with a magical landscape of dappled light as if through a canopy of leaves, with the two connected by trunks of trees which caused the space to undergo changes when touched by people (users). I believe we earned this award thanks to the judges' appreciation of how we represented interconnections among users, Aisin, and society.

■A bright, airy space handmade using sewing machines

■Installation conveying Aisin's worldview