DDAA is an architectural and design practice that works on multidisciplinary fields: architecture, city planning, landscape, interior, product, and concept making. DDAA LAB is a research and experimental design laboratory centering on architectural thinking, which aims to solve social challenges. Two collectives repeatedly give feedback with each other to propose innovative ideas to society.

As a premise, we design and produce not by designing complex systems from scratch but by using the least amount of resources to get maximum results. The current state of modern society, where mass-produced and mass-consumed goods flood the streets, and tons of garbage are discarded daily. It is not limited to physical objects. Suburban landscapes, especially in developed countries, are becoming increasingly homogenized, with chain stores prioritizing such economic efficiency. While we love to design, enjoy making things, and aspire to create new value, we face the dilemma of whether to continue designing more things daily in the current society overflowing with objects, information, and systems.

Although it was important to be universal and global in the modernist society, diversity and locality is the subject today. We believe that reinterpreting the meaning of objects, by using existing stock and spaces will allow us to design something filled with functionality and beauty.

In our recent projects, we tried to convert on-site materials and masterpiece of furniture to a sustainable design with new perspectives.

"Hackability of the Stool" is a research and prototyping project, converting Alvar Aalto’s “Stool 60” to 100 different types of products. This research started from a question that “Do we need more new designs?” This is an assemblage of ideas for easily creating products with diverse and niche functions.

In the project of ”Advertising Company Office”, we designed office facilities such as tables and partitions by converting the access floor system units of the office building as materials. This project is not merely about proposing upcycle office material but also casting an antithesis of the scrap and build culture in the interior design industry and Japanese real estate system.

In the project of ”NOT A HOTEL ANYWHERE”, we left its vintage exterior as much as possible and dramatically renewed the interior from the old fashioned layout that all the daily basic functions are equipped with. We created a completely new trailer house/hotel using five vehicles, each equipped with only one function.

In Japanese traditional tea culture, to compare something to a different thing called “Mitate.” We believe that the perspective of Mitate, cutting down on wasting by using the materials already existing, is a key to sustainable design in the future. It would not only contribute to the reduction of CO2 emission but also update the social system which normalized the separation of work and home and furthermore, the city itself.