A Universal Design Seminar was held at Kyoto Institute of Technology, on September 28th, 2016. The participants were two Universal Design Contest winners and contest judges from the Architecture faculties of Kasetsart University, Chulalongkorn University and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. This Universal Design (UD) contest was held by C. I. Technology Co. Ltd., Thailand. Prior to this seminar, the judges and winners participated in a discussion with President Furuyama. A formal acknowledgment of the award was made by the C.I. Technology coordinator, followed by President Furuyama’s mention of the increasingly active relationship between KIT and Thai partner universities, and announcement of plans for a joint symposium with Thai universities.

During the seminar, one winner each from the General and Student categories introduced his/her designs and fielded questions about their design concept. This was followed by four KIT professors’ (from Design and Architecture, Fiber Science and Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and Information and Human Sciences) explanations of their studies, and comments on the nature of UD viewed from their specified fields. The common theme was the importance of carefully investigating “Design for what, for whom?”

In addition, the seven essentials of tea-ceremony manners, introduced by professor of Arts and Sciences, had much in common with the seven principles of UD, which added an exciting angle to the discussion. Furthermore, during the UD workshop, color preferences unique to nationalities, multilingual communication, and human interfaces for handicapped were intensively discussed.

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• Discussion participants
• Seminar in progress
• Seminar participants