AW MUSEUM by NOMURA Co,.Ltd

"Museum design as a place to hand over memories to the future"

Toyota, which was the first to expect Japan's motorization after the world war, worked with Aisin AW to develop Japan's first purely domestic automatic transmission (AT) and world’s first car navigation systems. This museum project is a function that conveys passion and technology of the history of Aisin AW to the young employees and stakeholders.

In the 1960's, Japanese were completely beginners in the automobile production industry. Toyota and Aisin AW began to imitate Western technology and groped to build their own technology in a realistic way, approaching the perspective of their predecessors at that time. They later began the best AT maker in the world and now. In order to tell their story and history in this museum, we developed all the explanations using MANGA expressions, which are especially popular to young Japanese people. We challenged to exhibit the museum to be easy for every user to enjoy and embrace, and the enthusiasm of their predecessors could be felt firmly. Usually It is difficult to express people's emotions, impatience, embarrassment, and joy of success in the museum exhibition, so we used a memorable design technique to tell a message.

We dared to use the 50-year-old building, which was the starting point of AW. 

We transformed this building function as a stage set for the exhibition. In addition, we reproduced the transmission pallets and grating materials used in the AW factory as fixtures and stages for the museum. This will create an opportunity for "dialogue" between young employees and factory staff, who are the main targets. 

Based on MANGA, we devised each frame one by one, sometimes expressing it as an equal-sized 3D diorama model to express the stories at that moment.

We planed all the exhibition devices to produce an immersive feeling.

By omitting unnecessary things, we developed six stories using analog methods without using transient images or high-tech digital technology, to impress the visitors more simply and permanently.

In the exhibition space that conveys the transition of product technology using the old conference room area on the 2nd floor, small rooms are connected to form a large elongated space, and the entire space is designed to look like a chronological table. By deliberately utilizing the pallets that AW has delivered to the world for stage construction, employees can feel familiar and proud. The space as a huge AW chronology made it possible to intuitively feel at a glance the awesomeness of AW's technological capabilities, which continue to create the world's first and world's best forever.

Planning and Drawing

Project Member
Designer : Yuzo Kosaka, Yushi Tanaka Modeling Design :Kenichi Kishikawa Graphic Design: Hiroshi Yoshida Comic Graphic: Yukimasa Kawamura

Website: https://lhc-design.jp/