Monozukuri
with Ana Arriola-KanadaLearn to see what others miss.
Monozukuri is often translated as the spirit and culture of making. In this course, we treat it as a way of paying attention: to materials, people, place, time, and the systems behind what gets made.
Over ten weeks, you will study objects, spaces, services, and systems from Japan and your own surroundings. You will conduct field research, document what you actually observe, challenge your assumptions, and turn one area of curiosity into a focused design opportunity.
The studio is built around three principles: Simple, Human, Authentic.
Each week, you will share progress, receive direct critique, make decisions, and move one project forward. By Week 3, you will choose a domain: Object, Space, Service, or System. From there, you will research, map, sketch, prototype, test, edit, and refine.
Your final project can take many forms, including a product, service, spatial experience, system, material experiment, exhibition, program, or cultural intervention. What matters is that the work is grounded in evidence, understandable at first contact, and clear about how it could exist in the world.
This is not a course about borrowing a Japanese aesthetic. It is about understanding how culture, infrastructure, behavior, craft, and technology shape design, then developing a point of view of your own.
Students in Japan may work from Tokyo field sites. Students elsewhere will conduct parallel studies in their own cities, comparing how culture and context change an experience.
Ultimately, this is a course about empathy, attention, and interpretation. We design with cultures, not simply for them.
This is not a course about borrowing a Japanese aesthetic. It is about understanding how culture, infrastructure, behavior, craft, and technology shape design, then developing a point of view of your own.
Students in Japan may work from Tokyo field sites. Students elsewhere will conduct parallel studies in their own cities, comparing how culture and context change an experience.
Ultimately, this is a course about empathy, attention, and interpretation. We design with cultures, not simply for them.
What you will make
- Field studies built from direct observation, images, notes, and reflection
- A focused domain dossier and map of the people, systems, and constraints involved
- A design opportunity grounded in evidence
- Concepts, sketches, prototypes, and tests
- One developed final project with a clear point of view
- A final presentation showing how research, critique, and iteration changed the work
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Observe and document behaviors, objects, environments, rituals, and systems with greater precision.
- Separate direct observation from assumption, interpretation, and projection.
- Use field research, visual documentation, interviews, object study, and comparative analysis to build cultural intelligence.
- Translate research into a focused design opportunity with a clear audience, context, and point of view.
- Map stakeholders, constraints, relationships, burdens, and second-order effects.
- Develop, prototype, test, and communicate an idea while showing how critique and iteration strengthened the work.
Schedule
Thursday, 10:00–12:00 JST
Ana Arriola-Kanada
Designer, Maker, Cultural OrchestratorAna Arriola-Kanada works on frontier technologies for Horizon 2 and 3 innovation, shaping strategic partnerships and investments across emerging fields including AI, robotics, mixed reality, neuromorphic computing, autonomous systems, digital twins, and the industrial metaverse.
A results-driven executive and creative leader, she has built products and global teams at organizations such as Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Sony, PlayStation, Adobe, Samsung, IDEO, and startups at the edge of technology and culture, bridging design, engineering, and human insight.
Ana is the recipient of numerous international design honors, including G-Mark/GOOD, iF, Red Dot, EISA, Cool Hunting, and Tokyo Type Directors Club awards, and holds 38 global patents spanning hardware, interfaces, materials, and AI-driven systems.
A results-driven executive and creative leader, she has built products and global teams at organizations such as Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Sony, PlayStation, Adobe, Samsung, IDEO, and startups at the edge of technology and culture, bridging design, engineering, and human insight.
Ana is the recipient of numerous international design honors, including G-Mark/GOOD, iF, Red Dot, EISA, Cool Hunting, and Tokyo Type Directors Club awards, and holds 38 global patents spanning hardware, interfaces, materials, and AI-driven systems.
A queer latine investor and cultural curator, she leads semi permanent’s Tokyo Salone and its constellations in partnership with teenage engineering, and co-founded a space, in between, an inclusive cut-and-sew initiative exploring size inclusion, biomechanics, sustainability, and contemporary craftspersonship. Ana is also a director for OEO Studio in Japan, advising on long-horizon product, brand, and organizational strategy where materials, memory, and intention shape enduring value.
Her work navigates pivotal moments: clarifying what should be built, creating coherence across disciplines, and turning complex ideas into products and systems with lasting cultural and commercial value.
Her work navigates pivotal moments: clarifying what should be built, creating coherence across disciplines, and turning complex ideas into products and systems with lasting cultural and commercial value.
© 2026 AdvancedDesign
A 501(c)3 Nonprofit Organization
EIN# 82-1720724
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© AdvancedDesign 2026
A 501(c)3 Nonprofit Organization
EIN# 82-1720724
Donate
Terms & Conditions
Commercial Disclosure, Japan
© AdvancedDesign 2026
A 501(c)3 Nonprofit Organization
EIN# 82-1720724