Visitors to Lexus’s new installation at Milan Design Week can look forward to complete sensory experience that will stimulate the eyes, ears, nose, fingertips and even the taste buds.
Internationally celebrated French designer Philippe Nigro has explored the essence of Lexus to produce a new work, A Journey of the Senses, with Hajime Yoneda creating food items to complement his vision.
Nigro said: “When I visited Lexus plants to see how the cars are designed and built, I was greatly impressed by how much care goes into not just the exteriors, but also into the invisible internal details. It was this insight that let me to the ‘inside-out’ design concept that enables visitors to experience beauty from every angle.”
By revealing things that are normally hidden from view, Lexus will invite visitors to make new discoveries and enjoy new experiences in each of the installation’s three zones.
It is Lexus’s 10th year at Milan Design Week, the world’s largest international celebration of design. Through its collaborations with world-renowned designers, it has presented a series of original works that interpret its unique approach to design and express its vision of what a true luxury brand should be.
This year the theme of the five human senses captures the fundamental elements of life and how we perceive the world around us and the possibilities it offers. The theme is particularly relevant to Lexus, as sensory perceptions are at the heart of the driving experience, from the striking exterior design of the cars, the sound of their finely tuned engines and sensation you feel through the steering wheel as you move the car through a corner.
Zone 1: new insights in Lexus design
A new Lexus design concept will sit at the heart of the installation, with a series of special mirrors positioned to capture unexpected reflections and illumination to create a flow of motion stimulating the imagination.
Created by ED2, Lexus’s European design studio, the new concept is a perfect illustration of Lexus’s passion for up-coming design trends.
Zone 2: Lexus Design Award 2015 – ideas to shape the future
Zone 2 of the installation will be dedicated to the work of the 12 finalists in this year’s Lexus Design Award. Visitors will be welcomed in a woody foyer leading into an exhibition space where prototypes of the principal finalists and display boards showing the concepts produced by the other leading entrants will be on view. The space will have a quiet, soothing atmosphere to allow visitors to experience and appreciate the originality and creativity of each work and understand its potential contribution to future design.
Zone 3: experience the five senses
The third zone will invite people to explore a series of three cocoons titled “Rain”, “Wood” and “Earth”. The intention is to create a primal environment in which visitors will be able to savour the work of food designer Hajime Yoneda.
In the first cocoon they will be given Rain Flakes to taste and ushered into a darkened room to experience the feel and sound of falling rain.
As they enter the second cocoon they will receive hand-made chocolates and experience the smells, sounds and tastes of a forest from the inside out.
Finally they will be served a bowl of soup, before entering a universe bright with stars in the darkness, symbolising the life force of Mother Earth.
Lexus – A Journey of the Senses will be open to the public from 14 to 29 April in the Lexus Space at La Torneria in Milan, daily from 11am to 9pm. A press preview will be held on 13 April from 10am to 6pm.
