Craft x Tech finds "point of connection" between Japanese craftsmanship and global design

The Craft x Tech exhibition at the V&A will see artisans from Japan's Tokai region collaborate with international designers, including Philippe Malouin and Bethan Laura Wood, for London Design Festival.

The project aims to explore how traditional craft techniques can be used in new ways to create contemporary designs.

"We are not necessarily looking for the most famous crafts, but for techniques that seem to contain possibilities that have not yet been fully explored," Craft x Tech founder Hideki Yoshimoto told Dezeen.

"A craft may have developed over hundreds of years for a very particular purpose, but the knowledge accumulated within it can often have a much wider relevance than the objects it traditionally produces."

This year's edition of Craft x Tech, which first launched in 2024, focuses on craftsmanship from Japan's Tokai region.

It sees David Caon work with Yohei Ito, Lanzavecchia + Wai with Takanori Senda, Wood with Hiroyuki Murase, Malouin with Shigeyuki Ando, Eugene Kangawa with Mayuki Kato and Atang Tshikare with Tomoyuki Matsuda.

The aim was to not make the pairing of the designers and craftspeople "too obvious," Yoshimoto said.

"A certain distance between the designer and the craftsperson is useful: rather than simply applying a new design to an existing technique, they have to find their own point of connection, and that is often where something genuinely new begins," he explained.

For the designers, the collaboration provided an opportunity to work in new ways.

Industrial designer Caon, who created the Fushi modular ceramic console and lighting piece together with Ito of ceramic brand Fudogama, said he designed the original concept and this was then adapted by Ito.

"The original vision and the resulting piece are very different, but the spirit has been preserved by the understanding we both developed through our collaboration," Caon told Dezeen.

"Fushi is a piece created very much in my own language, but the distinct and beautiful green glaze and, indeed, the precision of the pieces is representative of Fudogama craftsmanship."

The resulting piece uses traditional oribe glaze to dramatic effect.

"The individual modules that make up the final assemblages are made to be identical," Caon said. "The oribe glaze, however, reacts completely unpredictably, removing any sense of uniformity across the surface of the piece."

Also taking part in the exhibition is UK designer Wood, whose Kataginu light collection with artisan Murase of textile company Suzusan "celebrates the 'magic' of tying, binding and folding at the heart of the shibori dyeing technique," Wood told Dezeen.

Named for kataginu, a traditional Japanese sleeveless vest, the colourful lampshades have sculptural forms that also draw on rain chains, temple roofs and folded paper masks.

They were made using a dying technique called arimatsu narumi shibori, which also influenced the final design.

"The design process establishes a direct connection between three-dimensional folded construction, the resulting dyed pattern, and the final form of each light," Wood said.

"Central to the collection is an exploration of the unpredictable colour transitions that occur when two dyes interact, capturing the 'living' quality of the dye as it responds to folding, binding and manipulation."

Her work was partly informed by previous designs by Suzusan that had also used textiles.

"I wanted to expand on this and develop the textile and bespoke lighting component together to make a family of lighting that combined the final results of shibori alongside keeping elements of the folding, stitching and binding that are normally removed during the process," Wood said.

"I worked with Suzusan to choose colours that also reacted well when illuminated – I love that the soft gentle pastel pink transforms into an almost neon colour when lit."

French designer Malouin wanted his Kasane design, made with Ando of the Aichi Prefecture brand Ando Cloisonne, to be closely connected to the brand's language but reinterpreted through his own approach.

"I wanted the result to feel contemporary without being disconnected from what they traditionally produce," Malouin told Dezeen. "The final design is a series of functional boxes which, when stacked together, form a sculptural totem."

The restraints of the process also had an effect on the design process, with Malouin deciding to make smaller items than he had first wanted due to the size of the kiln.

The designer, who says his work is "rarely decorative" worked with Ando to find the right approach to the surface decoration of the vessels.

"I wrapped sheets of paper around full-scale models of the boxes and marked them freely and almost randomly with a large felt-tip pen," Malouin said.

This led to an unusual design with an "intuitive" feel that represented both Malouin's designs and Ando Cloisonne's craftsmanship.

"The final objects bring together the simplicity of my forms and mark-making with the extraordinary precision and care of Shigeyuki Ando’s cloisonné technique," Malouin said.

"There is something surprising about seeing such a spontaneous, handmade pattern translated through such a meticulous and highly skilled process. That contrast is where the design represents us both."

Also on show at LDF is a collection of reinterpreted Marcel Breuer furniture and many, many more must-see installations, as chosen by the Dezeen team.

The photography is by Masayuki Hayashi.

Craft x Tech Tokai Project takes place at the V&A from 12 to 30 September. See our London Design Festival 2026 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks that take place during the week.

The post Craft x Tech finds "point of connection" between Japanese craftsmanship and global design appeared first on Dezeen.