inaho interactive robotic light: LEXUS design award 2013

LEXUS design award 2012 – ‘inaho’ by hideki yoshimoto and yoshinaka onoimage © designboom

an expert jury has selected the winners in the first global LEXUS design award – organized in collaboration with designboom – the competition having attracted more than 1,200 entries from around the world. such was the quality of the submissions, all on the theme of ‘motion’, the judges agreed to out forward 12 rather than the 10 initially proposed for inclusion in LEXUS’s presentation at during milan design week 2013.

the stem is made of a 3 mm wide carbon fibre tube, a LED is attached to its end and covered with a golden perforated tubeimage © designboom

the entry project – an array of freestanding lamps with bulbs shaped like ears of rice – inaho in japanese, created by tangent studio’s hideki yoshimoto and yoshinaka ono has been selected for further development under the guidance of a design mentor, the british product designer sam hecht . referring to an ear of rice slowly swaying in the wind, the light installation glows with a golden shine and gently leans towards people when they approach it. 

the golden light effectimage © designboom

artificial muscle fibres controlled by electricity are attached to the INAHO’s ‘root’. when the sensors detect a person, the micro controller put in the base makes the muscle fibres shrink a little bit with a certain rhythm and this gives a trigger of swaying. as the stem of INAHO is made of elastic carbon fibre tube, this small stimuli can be amplified into a dramatic motion.

pritzker prize recipient toyo ito on the calibre of the LEXUS design award projects submitted to designboomvideo © designboom

inaho by tangent in motionvideo © designboom

lexus design awards – inaho by tangent

image © designboom

sam hecht (tutor) and winning designers hideki yoshimoto and yoshinaka onoimage © designboom

the making of an inaho base, early stage of development

here ‘inaho’ features a ringed layout of interactive freestanding lamps, with bulbs shaped like an ear of rice

with an international jury consisting of pritzker prize recipient toyo ito, paola antonelli, aric chen, jaime hayon, designboom and LEXUS president kiyotaka ise, the designers of two of the winning entries were given the chance to create prototypes of their designs with one of the two assigned mentors – junya ishigami and sam hecht.

birgit lohmann of designboom at the award presentation for japan TV

award winners and international jury at the LEXUS space during milan design week 2013, the award ceremony took place on tuesday april 9thimage © designboom