Pacific Rim project | 多摩美術大学とアートセンター（米国）の共同研究

Tama Art University (TAU) and Art Center College of Design (ACCD) have cultivated exchanges in design education for more than 28 years, and in 2006, the Pacific Rim joint project was inaugurated. The project requires design students of the two institutions to collaborate on research and practical work related to both global and local themes, such as natural disasters, sustainability and workspace. They explore the theme from the viewpoints of different cultures, customs, languages, and thinking, then propose their responses and solutions as designers. The results of their research are announced in a final presentation, as well as on the Internet.

In 2006, two sessions were held in Japan and the US. The students focused on the theme “How can design respond to natural disasters?” and worked hard on case studies of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake and the massive 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles. At the end of the project, they had not only produced a number of creative responses to disaster relief, but had also deepened their understanding of other cultures.

In 2007, ten students and two part-time professors of ACCD visited Japan from September to December to carry out research with twelve TAU students on a theme related to the concept of sustainable design.

In 2008, the session was held in the US once again. On the theme of "Designing the way we work", thirteen ACCD students and ten TAU students explored various ways of improving our working environment.

The final Japan stage will be held in 2009. On the theme of “Designing Sustainable Living”, twenty-five students from both institutions will explore how design can inform and enrich all aspects of our daily lives and re-define the human experience.

In this fifth collaborative studio between Art Center College of Design and Tama Art University, students will be challenged to consider all aspects of our everyday lives. For some people facing everyday may be a thrilling prospect, as others may find this to be a daunting scenario. While others may try to find serenity in a coffee break.

As Life becomes more stressful, more complex, it may be the everyday, the mundane aspects of life that we find enriching, enhancing and rejuvenating.

In a world with many challenges, how can we move far beyond traditional approaches of where and why we live the way we do? How can we establish fresh new parameters that make new connections, explore more responsible possibilities and fashion more informed options for our future? These new frameworks could create new paradigms for how we live, work and play.

A critical component of this studio will be pushing towards a smarter more responsible sustainable future. We will be considering the user, the experience, and the social impact of the overall design.

We will also examine the user participation in the design of the space/object.
Which may elevate the notion of “ownership” as well as promote a sense of “heirloom”,
legacy and ritual.

Can we create meaningful moments and encounters, while looking at new trends of lifestyle, generational charge and individual need?

What should the future of our home, work, recreation look like?

The goal of this studio is to create a heightened awareness in sustainability and ecological issues and to create multivalent solutions for present and forward thinking scenarios in our everyday life. And lastly to redefine and elevate the human experience.