SHIN AZUMI / A STUDIO (UK/JP)

Related Projects: Belgrade Design Week Festival 2008

Japanese designer Shin Azumi runs his own design multidisciplinary studio ‘a studio’. He designs for internationally based clients in the areas of consumer products, furniture, lighting, and electronics, as well as space design for shops, restaurants and exhibitions.

Shin Azumi was born in Kobe, Japan in 1965. After finishing his MA in Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art in 1994, he started working as a design unit ‘AZUMI’. In 2005, he established his own office ‘a studio’ in London. The clients list of ‘a studio’ includes Desalto, Lapalma, Magis, Fdredericia, Guzzini, Tefal and many other international brands.

Shin Azumi’s work has received numerous design awards in Europe and in Japan, amongst which the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize in 2004, the Blueprint 100% Design Award in 2003 and “Product of the Year, 2000” FX International Design Award (for the LEM stool). His works were acquired as permanent collection by Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), Stedelijk Museum (Holland), Crafts Council (UK), Die Neue Sammlung (Germany), Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt (Germany)…

In 2016, he moved to Tokyo, Japan, and currently he is a professor of Hosei University, Faculty of Engineering and Design. He is also the visiting professor of Osaka University of Arts, Kobe Design University. He also took part in the jury of numerous design awards such as, IF Design Award (DE), DT Design Award (JPN), Design Report Award (DE / IT), FX International Design Award (UK), Kokuyo Design Award (JPN)…

www.shinazumi.com

Running in the morning through the city (down what the germans call a fussgangerzone) and being amazed by all the grand empty old buildings that reminded me of my Berlin beginnings. Grafitti on buildings. Lovely broken walls with acne'd facades from decades of reverse engineering. Discovering that all the ships on the river were party boats and open till the morning. Sweating so much in one of the clubs, my phone got messed up. Losing phone in said club. Visiting belgrade police station to report a then stolen phone to a twenty-something cop with a doctor's lab coat, listening to Rammstein (loudly) while hacking out my report on a pre-electric typewriter that looked (and sounded) as if it was from some era before typewriters were invented.   Thinking of Naked Lunch. Thinking of Die-Hard. Listening to architects talk about porous facades. Thinking of old smart bombs. Imagining the flash and crunch of several floors of reinforced concrete collapsing in on themselves. Wondering why I'm the only interactive guy here. Why are there so many beautiful women in Belgrade? Why are there so many beautiful women in Belgrade?!

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