Workshop｜Creative Design City Nagoya 2009

Creative Design City Nagoya 2009

From Now On:Envisioning Nagoya’s Future on the Large Scale and the Small

International New Designers Workshop

C Team: Map

Fieldwork:

Lecture “The Horikawa (Hori River), Past and Present” by Jyunji Sueyoshi
The Horikawa (viewed from a boat and from on land)

Proposal Summary:

Title: Map of the Horikawa, Tenchijin

Four centuries have passed since the erection of Nagoya Castle. The Horikawa (Hori River), a canal created to help build the castle, “Nagoya’s Mother River”, has flowed along constantly with the city’s development. The year 2010 marks a milestone. Nagoya commemorates the 400th anniversary of the founding of the city, and will also host the opening of the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10). Nagoya will be in the spotlight. Envisioning these historic events, we conceived the idea of creating a map, based on the existing one but more convenient and fully conveying the river’s charm.
Since ancient times, in China people have cherished a philosophical point of view known as tenchijin. This translates literally as “heaven, earth and human beings”. Heaven is symbolized by a circle, representing the natural environment. Earth is symbolized by a square, representing history and culture. The triangle represents the life of human beings. These elements are considered a trinity.
A similar design is found in Sakae, Nagoya’s downtown. There, we see striking striped street lamps: blue at the top, symbolizing the sky, and green at the bottom, representing the earth. Between the two is purple, symbolizing humankind.
Combining these two images, one from China and one from Sakae, we have succeeded in building a more intelligent map, categorizing into codes and colors the symbols associated with the Horikawa. On the map, we included plenty of photos and information the nature, the dietary culture and history surrounding the river.
The map can be folded into the size of a name card. The idea of designing a dual structure that has a simple tailored map format with vertical and horizontal folds offers a large amount of detailed information. We were able to come up with a charming design solution matching the project theme, “Envisioning Nagoya’s Future on the Large Scale and the Small”.