Prize(s) Honorable Mentions
Lighting Design/Product Company Taizen+Kimikimiyo
Lead Designers Yasuhiko Isami
Other Designer's names Kimiyo Isami
Client Tanaka Gakuen Educational Corporation
Photo Credits Yasuhiko Isami
Other Credits None
Completion Date June 15,2024
Project Location Mito,Ibaraki JAPAN
Entry DescriptionIn Reggio Emilia, Italy, kindergartens and elementary schools practice arts education that incorporates the effects of light. However, in Japanese elementary schools' art and crafts classes, lessons that handle light and illumination are scarce. The applicant conducts research on children's play environments, focusing on the beauty of light and shadow. As part of this effort, they have developed and disseminated educational materials for the project "Building Block Light Workshop - Reading Reflection Light Based on Fairy Tales", an art-science communication activity where children aged 4 to 12 learn about the balance of light sources, reflective materials, and shielding materials through hands-on experiences.
In this workshop, children not only appreciate and feel the beauty of light but also think proactively and experientially about why light is beautiful and how to create beautiful light. They then share and have the opportunity to be evaluated on their own creations that convey the beauty of light and shadow. LEDs are used as light sources, and children are made to recognize that light sources alone are not beautiful and that looking directly at the light source is merely dazzling. Beechwood building blocks are used as reflective and shielding materials, and by arranging and stacking the blocks around the LEDs, the light that illuminates the reflective building blocks, the
Sustainability ApproachThe fairy tale "Where the Light Dwells" features a paper airplane named Koki as the protagonist, traveling through places filled with light and colors. In the workshop, children express the scenes they imagined after reading the fairy tale using building blocks and LEDs as "reading reflection light," completing it as a three-dimensional picture book. This workshop is a practical arts education activity that develops children's sensitivity to the fields of art and science by arranging LEDs in the constructive play of building blocks, which are essential teaching aids in early childhood and elementary education.
