PROJECT

Amorphous

Milan Salone installation doubled previous year's attendance, received multiple design awards.

WHY

What kind of communication should manufacturers have at the world’s largest design festival?

“Asahi Glass AGC,” proudly the world’s largest glass maker in Japan, presented the characteristics and new values of glass to stimulate an urge to create. In 2015, an exhibition for “Milano Salone” began (the world’s largest furniture and design fair). The following year, we received a request from “Asahi Glass AGC” to work together on this installation. We questioned what values we should show at a design festival where people in the industry gather to meet manufacturers and creators from all over the world. Despite investing with a large budget, we wanted to approach the original potential of Milan Design Week through an installation that usually disappears into the background.

HOW

Reproducing the molecular structure of glass and communicating its value from both art and science perspectives.

Together with AGC Asahi Glass, we utilized approximately 5,000 sheets of chemically strengthened glass with lights created by cutting-edge technology. We made space to experience the molecular structure of glass enlarged by one billion times its actual size—the Amorphous of glass. Inspired by this molecular structure of no particular shape, this installation recreates the delicate and rich microcosmos hidden within a glass, expressing the latest in glass technology, light, wind, and music. It conveys the characteristics of glass as lightweight and with freedom, which is also expressive by overturning the conventional image. This exhibition, appealing to visitors with its mysterious beauty, is also a showcase packed with the future of glass technology. A small science museum was set up at the venue to view after the installation. It was communication through design to understand glass substances, their technology, and the products of AGC Asahi Glass from a scientific perspective.

WILL

The exhibition, which is sincerely devoted to science, attracts a great deal of attention and leads to new discoveries and technological developments.

This exhibition, featured in many media platforms, recorded twice as many visitors to the venue as the previous year and granted numerous design awards. To express a beautiful glass sculpture, the production process of this installation required numerous technical challenges as we faced the world of Science. However, discoveries and technologies were developed by conducting various experiments with AGC Asahi Glass.