Shinji Koike's Activities in the 1950's : Making to science of Design and Cross-fertilization

Abstract

This paper investigates, through his publications and articles in 1950's, the trace of Shinji Koike, a pioneer of industrial design in Japan. Koike's activities during this period can be summarized as follows: (1) Contributed to the establishment of the Japan Industrial Designers Association (JIDA), believing the main role of industrial designers is humanization of industry, (2) Acted as a key person for the establishment of Japanese Society for The Science Of Design (JSSD), responding to the educational and research needs for design, (3) Advocated identifying Japanese design characteristics in which Japanese history, climate and living have rooted, despite the fact that he acted as a leader of a fact-finding 45-day-mission and very knowledgeable about the state of affairs in American design, and (4) Conceptualized cross fertilization for design science and rearranged the design education systems, believing that integration of diversified scientific knowledge would put design for human ecology into practice.