Design with memory

Design with Memory (記憶のデザイン, Kioku no dezain) is a value adding approach to sustainable product design and architecture that was developed by Japanese industrial design professional Fumikazu Masuda], professor at Tokyo Zokei University, and American architect Tom Johnson as a design criteria for use in the fifth and sixth rounds of the International Design Resource Awards Competition (IDRA) between 1999-2003. Introduced at the time of rising global sustainability movement in the 1990s, the term proposes a new way of looking at design with recycled, re-used and sustainable materials and identifies four pathways to approach design to achieve this result of added value.
The first mention of the term "Design with Memory" in the U.S. was in the "ARCADE" magazine (1997). In an article discussing winning entries to the first three rounds of the Competition Architect Johnson said, “We have come to call it 'Designing with Memory' because sustainable design is based on the recognition of our interdependent relationship with the natural world around us – something we forgot when we had designed products and architecture with the idea that their materials could be wasted and landfilled. It is also 'Designing with Memory' because it means thinking about where the materials come from, how they are used, and where they will go next.”
The first mention of the term “Design with Memory“ in Japan was at the Japanese Design Research Center exhibit in Niigata, Japan (1999). With heightening global interest in sustainable development during this time, the DRA competitions organized under the theme of "Design with Memory" were funded in part by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), and the exhibits in Japan were part of a national program of design education with associated seminars. It is said to be the first international design competition under the theme of sustainability to be sponsored by the Japanese government.
History.
Origin of the term
The Design Resource Awards Competition (1994-2003), was begun by Johnson Design Studio with a grant from the State of Washington’s Clean Washington Center with the goal of encouraging the development of commercially viable products made from recycled and sustainably harvested materials. The State of Washington’s pioneering recycling programs were gathering much mixed waste paper, construction debris, plastics, metals and glass, but there were very few products being made with these materials. One of the main challenges to using the materials was their cost - successful new products would need to be of relatively high value. The Competition challenged designers with the problem of making high value products with what were viewed as relatively low quality, low value materials. While the Competition began as a local effort, within the first year over half the entries came from outside the United States and the name was revised to the International Design Resource Awards (IDRA) Competition. The Competition highlighted that such challenge was not unique to Washington State, but was a global issue which many governmental and environmental institutions around the world were looking to solve (see major donor list below). It is believed to be the first international design competition focused on encouraging the development of sustainable product design and architecture.
The core criteria for designer's submissions for IDRA competitions were:
The Competition was open to student and professional entrants. The award was given out in three categories of student, professional, and honorable mention. Typically the Competition had five jurors from various backgrounds – education, marketing, material sciences, architecture, and product design. Early advocates and supporters of sustainable design from across these disciplines became jurors for the competition. Particularly well known Jurors included Wendy Brawer, Pliny Fisk III, Arunas Oslapas, and Fumikazu Masuda.
The term "Design with Memory" came about after 4th year of the Competition in 1999, when a Japanese journalist Hiroyuki Kushida working on the Whole Earth Project in Tokyo, saw some of the award winners from the first three rounds of the Competition during a trip to U.S., and arranged for an exhibit to travel to Japan. While visiting the first exhibit in Japan, Architect Johnson met Professor Masuda for the first time and discovered that the phrase “sustainable design” translates in Japanese to “design with memory” (記憶のデザイン), and that this phrase also translated well back to English in the ways we thought about sustainable design - "Where do materials come from and where do they go next?” (Johnson interview, Sotokoto 2003) This collaboration subsequently led to a year long series of seminars for professional industrial designers and support for the 5th and 6th rounds of the Competition was provided by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) together with other industry supporters such as Living Design Center OZONE in Tokyo.
From 1994 to 2003 the Competition received over 1200 entries from over 20 countries with the 5th and 6th rounds of the Competition attracting more than 450 entries. The winning entries were published in various design books and magazines around the world. This story of "Spinning garbage into gold" was featured in various fashion and lifestyle magazines such as House Beautiful, Elle Decor, and An-An. It was one of the pioneering initiatives that aimed to position products made from recycled material in an elevated way by exhibiting them in high-end design shops, galleries, and museums.
Origin of the concept
An iconic example used by Professor Masuda and Architect Johnson to illustrate the historical precedent for “Design with Memory” is the ancient Japanese tea cup which has been broken and visibly repaired (also see kintsugi, wabi-sabi). "An 'old' value in eco design can be seen in an ancient Japanese tea ceremony cup that was broken and carefully repaired. This care and attention gives the cup added value as it becomes a cultural icon.”
During the 5th and 6th rounds of the Competition the phrase came to represent a new design methodology for designing with recycled, re-used and sustainably harvested materials. It is based on making elements of the product’s materials and use self-evident, and thereby raising the value of the product for the user. “Through interaction with the entrants and jurors this phrase has grown to include complementary levels of meaning. For example, 'Design with Memory' could mean adding value to a design by employing the memory of the material’s previous use in the new work. It could also mean adding value to the project by actively employing the memory of the user, or, perhaps, the memory of the material or product itself in the new work.” 
Application.
The Japanese industrial design professor and American architect duo identified 4 pathways to accomplish Designing with Memory and introduced them as focus categories in the 5th and 6th rounds of IDRA Competition. Each pathway was illustrated through examples of award winning entries from the Competition: