Transitions

Project Details

Project Description

FROM PANASONIC:

Panasonic is marking its 100-year anniversary at Milan Design Week with a landmark installation and series of talks called ‘TRANSITIONS by Panasonic Design’. The installation explores the role design will play in improving our physical environment and emotional well-being in the future. It also marks Panasonic’s transition towards a new creative philosophy: designing products and services and experiences that go beyond physical products to address emotions, the environment, and well-being.

A large scale immersive water-drop pavilion containing the purest air in Milan…

· The immersive installation is contained within a large ‘water-drop pavilion’, 20m in diameter, in the impressive courtyard of the Pinacoteca de Brera, home of the Brera Art Gallery.
· Visitors are invited to embark on a transition of their own: from the busy fair environment to a moment of calm and relaxation.
· Inside, they are transported from the hectic fair into an oasis of calm with the cleanest, purest air in Milan from Panasonic’s latest air purification technology.
· Visitors will wander through a cooling, ultra-fine, dry mist created from Panasonic’s green air conditioning technology.
· Atmospheric sound design, lighting and visuals will add to the calming experience.
· The installation is subtitled ‘Air Inventions’, referencing Panasonic’s transition to products and experiences that address the more intangible elements of everyday life.

Shigeo Usui, Director of Panasonic Design, commented: “Over the past 100 years, Panasonic has improved peoples’ lives through technology and physical products, from light bulbs to washing machines. Our new creative philosophy focused on the ‘culture of life’ will allow us to go beyond the physical and enrich the whole culture of a person’s life, including health, wellbeing, feelings and experiences. ‘Transitions’ represents this shift by exploring how we’re looking at ‘re-inventing’ the air we breathe and how we experience the world around us.”

The installation showcases Panasonic’s NanoeX technology, a system that uses moisture in the air to create electrically-charged water molecules that remove toxins from the air. The cooling, ultra-fine, dry mist that fills the space is created from Panasonic’s ‘green’ air conditioning technology, which encloses cool pockets of air within clouds of mist.

The ‘TRANSITIONS’ installation and 100th anniversary come at a time when Panasonic are embarking on some exciting transitions of their own. Panasonic have major plans to boost creativity and innovation by consolidating the four main divisions of the company under one roof in Kyoto, Japan’s cultural capital, while also founding a new design strategy and insights team in London called FLUX.

Takehiro Ikeda, Director of Panasonic FLUX & Creative Director of Panasonic Design, commented: “The new team based in London will lead insights, creative strategy and storytelling to revolutionise Panasonic’s design process. FLUX will fuel the design development process in Kyoto and Tokyo and help ensure that Panasonic continues to create new products and services that are relevant to today’s changing world.”

As part of ‘TRANSITIONS’ at Milan Design Week, Panasonic will host a series of panel discussions on the theme exploring the ongoing impact of design and technology on our culture, living spaces and communities.

A 20-metre diameter air dome in the shape of a giant water-drop will be installed in the courtyard of the venue – Pinacoteca di Brera. Inside, Panasonic aims to create “the most beautiful and clean space in Milan” by utilizing the combination of their proprietary technologies – Nanoe X air purification ionization technology, and ‘silky fine mist’ another proprietary technology which micronizes water with high pressured air.

Inside the dome, visitors will experience Panasonic’s ultra-super luminosity projector – PT RQ32K (luminosity at the centre: 27,000 lumen), and high performance/high resolution fish-eye lens – ET-D3LEF70 creating the highly realistic 4K projection mapping.