AGC Asahi Glass (AGC), a world-leading manufacturer of glass, chemicals and high-tech materials, announced today that it will make its third appearance at Milan Design Week, one of the world’s largest design festivals held in Italy in April, following last year and the year before. The exhibit―titled “Touch”―places a focus on “The Feel of Glass,” which is inspired by the human sense of touch. The collaboration between AGC’s glass processing technologies and the innovative ideas of its creative partners will completely overturn the conventional image of glass.

AGC is happy to welcome its new creative partners Jin Kuramoto, who provides designs that express the essence of the object or item through clear, form-based expression, and the design studio Raw-Edges based in London that is known for its witty and humorous world-view and works that incorporate many colors and movements.

◆Creation Partners◆
Jin Kuramoto
Raw-Edges

As exemplified by smartphones and tablet PCs, an increasing variety of glass used in everyday life is now becoming something that people “touch” to do things. AGC is developing a wide range of technologies to respond to such market needs.
At Milan Design Week 2017, AGC views glass as an object that is designed for people to “touch” instead of its conventional uses for partitioning, protecting, and decorating. AGC’s glass installation will stimulate the curiosity of visitors and make them feel like “touching” the works and experiencing the diverse range of textures and feel of glass.

AGC is a world leader in architectural glass, automotive glass and display glass. At Milan Design Week, AGC’s glass installation will propose new uses and possibilities for glass to designers in the fields of architecture, interior design, product design and spatial presentation.

Reference Information

About the AGC Group

AGC Asahi Glass (or also called AGC, Registered Company name: Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., Headquarters: Tokyo, President & CEO: Takuya Shimamura) is the parent company of the AGC Group, a world-leading glass solution provider and supplier of flat, automotive and display glass, chemicals, ceramics and other high-tech materials and components. Based on more than a century of technical innovation, the AGC Group has developed a wide range of cutting-edge products. The Group employs some 50,000 people worldwide and generates annual sales of approximately 1.3 trillion Japanese yen through business in about 30 countries.

The Situation of Glass Today

Conventional glass, such as flat float glass and figured glass with various patterns, is designed primarily for partitioning, protecting, and decorating, not as a material meant primarily to be touched. But with the popularization of the smartphone, people have many more opportunities to actually touch glass, and experts predict that the use of glass as an interface for obtaining information will continue to increase. Against this backdrop, technological advancements focusing on human senses are progressing, like the development of glass that is pleasant to the touch and glass that feels like paper when written on.

Glass Processing Technology

By using a wide range of technologies, such as fluorine chemical processing for anti-soiling/anti fingerprint coatings, and chemical/mechanical glass surface processing using molding materials, a multitude of textures can be created, ranging from unevenness on a micrometer scale that can only be recognized through touch to large designs with a strong visual element on a meter scale.

Milan Design Week

The “Milan Design Week”, one of the largest design festivals in the world, has been held every April in Milan, Italy since 1961. Approximately 1,000 events (Fuori Salone) in which designers and other creative people compete with unique designs are held simultaneously during the festival at various locations in Milan, and all of these events are now collectively called “Milan Design Week.” This is AGC’s third consecutive year exhibiting at Fuori Salone.

Overview of AGC’s exhibition at Milan Design Week 2017

Creation Partners

Jin KURAMOTO

Jin Kuramoto was born in 1976 on Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture. After graduating from the Kanazawa College of Art in 1999, he worked at a home electronics manufacturing company and then moved on to establish JIN KURAMOTO STUDIO in 2008. He has been involved in the design of a diverse range of different product types, encompassing everything from furniture and home electronics to eyewear and automobiles.
In all of these works, Kuramoto strives to achieve design that conveys the true essence of the object or item in question through clear, form-based expression. Kuramoto also has experience in design-related consulting for corporations, members of local industries and other such clients, and he provides all-encompassing development support ranging from product planning and design development to structural design and tooling development.
JIN KURAMOTO STUDIO is active both in Japan and abroad: major clients include Offecct, Arflex Japan, Honda, Nikon, MEETEE and Smaller Objects. Awards received by Kuramoto include the iF Design Award, Red Dot Design Award and Good Design Award, among others.

Raw-Edges

Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay founded the design studio Raw-Edges after graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2007. The duo has been involved with design work for and collaborations with major international companies, including Louis Vuitton, Stella McCartney, Airbnb, Moroso, Cappellini, Kvadrat, Mutina, Golran and Caesarstone as well as The Vitra Design Museum.
Colors, patternmaking and movement are some of the primary factors behind their design approach, as is curiosity—as their official description puts it, “The studio became...a place where they could embark on a continuous journey of discovery, turning the world upside down and inside out, cracking things open and studying their structure, always striving for surprise, wonder, humour.” Through their work, they seek out new discoveries, manipulating the things around them to find new and fascinating things.
Following their work, the studio awarded Designers of the Future by Design Miami/ Basel, Elle Deco international Edida Award, Wallpaper Design Award, iF Design Award, Red Dot Design Award and other prestigious awards for their work. They have also been nominated several times for the Designs of the Year Award at the London Design Museum.