'river runs through city' by chikara ohno - FUJITSU judge's special award

'river runs through city' by chikara ohno


'river runs trough city' by japanese designer chikara ohno is one of the seven entries that received the 'judge's special award'
among over 3000 participants from our recent designboom competition 'a life with future computing', organized in collaboration
with FUJITSU and DA - design association japan.

designer's own words:
with the continued innovation of ICT (information and communications technology) will reduce value of place or body?
is it possible that technology will connect human activity and urban space? well, imagine an electronic landscape running across
the city locally as a river raising your mind - unexpected stream of people appear everywhere and change the aspect of the city.

this river could runs through the existing urban facilities and have several types of information channels such as books,
music, movies, local information and communication. only people along the river at the same time can share the contents.
it's a very local infrastructure. the experience of the same scene enables the body to experience ICT in a new form.

the quantity and proportions of information fluctuate by the interests of people gathering at a particular location.
it makes and promotes a feature of place spontaneously, the city being restored to an area of variety and affluence.

the restoration of cheonggye river in seoul offered a waterside place of recreation and relaxation to the citizens and changed
the urban communication dramatically. can ITC change the shape of city like this within a budget of 500 million dollars?




jury members (from left to right):
ross lovegrove, birgit lohmann of designboom, gwenael nicolas (curiosity), toshiyuki inoko, ma yansong (MAD architects)
and nobuo otani, corporate senior vice resident Fujitsu, kimitaka kato, Fujitsu design president (without photo).


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those wishing to republish an excerpt of this article, please have the courtesy
to link back to this original article, and to mention that the project
was designed for the 'FUJITSU design award: a life with future computing'
competition, organized by designboom in collaboration with FUJITSU.
thank you.