Explore the cutting-edge graduation projects from three master's students of the Emerging Design and Informatics course at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies (GSII), The University of Tokyo, class of 2025. Each innovative work bridges design thinking with emerging technologies, offering fresh perspectives at the intersection of design, society, and informatics.
Designing Product Endings through Degradation: A Methodology for Sustainable Design
Bailang Cheng
In the pursuit of sustainability, much of product design focuses on circularity—reuse, recycling, and material efficiency—yet the endings of products remain largely invisible. This research introduces a novel design approach that reframes degradation as an intentional and creative phase in product lifecycles.
Using a Research through Design (RtD) methodology, the project explores how products can transition from use to meaningful closure, integrating insights from biomimicry, material science, and design practice. Through hands-on material exploration and speculative design trials, the study develops a structured methodology, a workflow, and a toolkit to support designers in integrating endings into the early stages of product development.
The research culminates in three experimental design trials: a biodegradable exoskeleton that nurtures seedlings before dissolving into the soil, an architectural system that transforms into an ecological habitat, and a modular bio-electronic device with user-triggered disassembly to reduce e-waste. A participatory design toolkit, including object cards, material insights, and a degradation vocabulary, further aids designers in envisioning sustainable product endings.
By making endings visible, this project challenges the linear consumption model and proposes a new perspective where degradation is not waste, but transformation. The findings contribute to sustainable design education, speculative futures, and industry applications, offering pathways to more ecologically integrated and creatively engaging product lifecycles.
Spectral Aura
Tamaki Miyase
`Spectral Aura,' is a wearable experience that reveals electromagnetic waves in urban environments through dynamic visual representations. The primary objective is to detect and interpret electromagnetic waves, presenting this invisible information through dynamic visual representations to enhance people’s awareness.
This design project explored how wearable experiences can reveal hidden elements within urban environments, examining the intersection of human perception, urbanization, and technology. Whilst human sensory capabilities enable the experience of natural phenomena, numerous aspects of our surroundings—particularly electromagnetic waves (EM waves)—remain imperceptible.
The design serves as both an artistic expression and a functional tool, enabling observers to perceive and interact with typically invisible aspects of their environment. This project demonstrates how wearable technology can enhance environmental awareness and facilitate new ways of understanding our relationship with urban technological infrastructure.
This research-through-design work began with the author’s personal interest in the relationship between clothing and its surroundings. Through iterative experimentation and prototyping, the project evolved into its final form. This process yielded valuable insights about the relationship between clothing and invisible technological infrastructure in urban environments.
Ministry of Natural Relations: Envisioning Systems to Co-Design More-Than-Human Governance & Law
Juliette Yuzumi Iida
This research explores how environmental policymaking could be reimagined through More-Than-Human (MTH) philosophy. This approach challenges the conventional human-centric view of nature, proposing that the environment itself is an active agent in shaping today’s world. By incorporating MTH concepts, the research investigates how to design systems that enable governments to collaborate with the environment in policymaking rather than making decisions for it.
Utilizing methods like Research Through Design, Experimental Design, and Design Fiction, the study culminates in a conceptual proposal for a “Ministry of Natural Relations,” a system that aims to innovate Japanese governance by bridging theoretical MTH ideas with practical policy frameworks.
The project critiques current political limitations and questions the rigidity of governmental structures, inviting a broader conversation on environmental stewardship within Japanese society. It proposes new legal frameworks that recognize the agency and interdependence of all species—human and nonhuman—in shaping policy, contributing to ongoing discussions on the future of environmental governance.
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