About
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About
About company

ambiguous is a lighting design studio driven by ecocentrism values, based in Singapore and Tokyo.

ambiguous は、シンガポールと東京を拠点にする自然中心主義の価値観に基づいた光環境、照明デザインスタジオです。

Company policy

We recognize that humans are a part of nature and strongly advocate for a shift away from human-centred thinking and towards ecocentrism, or nature centred thinking.

In lighting design, there is a role beyond improving the appearance of a space. Our aim is to improve the natural environment, including humans, through light and lighting. With this philosophy in mind, we collaborate with a diverse group of people to imagine and explore different ways of using and experiencing light as a material.
We are always looking for new challenges and interesting collaborators.

人間は自然の一部であると認識し、人間中心主義から自然中心主義への意識転換を実現していきます。

光環境デザインには、見た目よく、機能的な光環境を創造するという以上の役割があると思っています。私たちの目指すことは、光と照明を通じて人間を含む自然環境を改善することです。このような理念のもと、多種多様な人々と協働して、光のさまざまな使い方や光の体験の創り、探求していきたいと思っています。新しい挑戦と興味深いコラボレーターを常に探しています。

Approach
Design Approach

Regenerative Lighting Design

Regenerative means creating positive impacts rather than merely minimizing negative ones, and goes beyond "sustainable". Applying this philosophy in the context of lighting design means taking for granted conventional lighting design approaches that reduce negative environmental and social impacts, such as energy conservation and light pollution, and creating light environments that actively contribute to the regeneration and enhancement of natural systems, social systems, and economies, including human. A comprehensive design approach is required, taking into account the interrelationships of many conditions and elements. Our Regenerative lighting design principles are integrated with all our design/ consulting services.

Regenerative (再生的)とは、単にマイナスの影響を最小化するのではなく、プラスの影響を生み出すことであり、Sustainable(持続可能性)を超えるものです。光環境デザインの文脈でこのRegenerative (再生的)なデザイン理念を適用させるということは、 省エネや光害など、環境や社会へのネガティブな影響を少なくする従来の照明デザインのアプローチは当然のこととして実践し、さらに人間を含む自然システム、社会システム、そして経済システムと向上に積極的に貢献する光環境を創り出すことを意味します。このデザインアプローチは弊社のデザイン原則として、すべての設計/コンサルティングサービスに適応されます。

Regenerative Lighting Design Principles

Promote Wellness
Lighting plays important role in health happiness that encompasses physical, psychological, and social well-being.

Promote and accelerate circular economy
As lighting designers, we have a responsibility to act proactively toward the future of our planet and humanity.

Minimize negative impact to ecosystem
Night supposed to be dark. We work on designing light environments with the awareness that nighttime lighting is harmful to non-humans.

Minimize energy consumption
Using LEDs is not the only way to save energy. First, we consider and design whether the light is really necessary.

リジェネレーティブな光環境デザインの原則

ウェルネス

光環境は、人間の身体的、心理的、社会的な健康や幸福にとても重要な役割を果たします。

循環型社会の促進と実践

私たちはデザイナーとして、地球と人類の未来に向かって主体的に行動する責任があります。

生態系への影響を減らす

夜は暗いもの。夜の照明は人間以外にはいらないものであることを意識して光環境のデザインに取り組みます。

エネルギー消費を減らす

LEDを使うことだけが省エネではない。まず、その光が本当に必要なのかを考えデザインします。

Services
What We Do

Our company will use light and lighting as materials to design the relationship between architecture and people, cities and nature. As collaborators, we will also be experts in exploring the ways light and lighting can and should be used. The following are the services we offer.

弊社は光をツールに、建築と人、都市と自然との関係性をデザインしていきます。また、光、照明の専門家として、光や照明のあり方や使い方を探求するコラボレーターとなります。以下が弊社の提供する業務です。

Our Design and Consultation Services

1. Architectural/ Landscape Lighting Design
Collaborating with architects, landscape designers, developers, and public agencies, we design beautiful light environments and people's experience of light environments in indoor and outdoor projects ranging from private residences to offices, hotels, commercial facilities, and parks. From initial design conception through construction site management, we balance project budgets and enhance the social, cultural, and economic value of buildings, spaces, and real estate.

2. Master Planning / Lighting Strategy
In collaboration with city planners, developers, and government agencies, we assist in formulating the future of a city by creating lighting master plans and guidelines to make cities and buildings safe, comfortable, healthy, and distinctive and individualized through lighting. We also consider improvements and upgrades to lighting systems from a medium- to long-term perspective and make optimal proposals considering both universal values that do not change over time and the latest lighting technologies.

3. Cross-Disciplinary Design and Consultation
We share our expertise in light and lighting and collaborate with various fields and industries outside of the architectural and urban realm in a cross-functional approach to solve problems and create new ideas and businesses that will take the world a step forward. Examples could include light in entertainment, plants and light, virtual space and light, and outer space and light.

4. Product Development / Business Strategy
From the perspective of a light designer, we advise on the development and improvement of new lighting products and light-related architectural finishing materials. We also advise on marketing strategies, current market trends, product selection, and the preferences of international customers and end users.

5. Research Support for Light and Lighting Environment
Based on our practical experience and perspective as light environment designers, we collaborate with researchers and companies working on lighting and light environments, assisting them in the formulation of research plans, experimental cooperation, and the planning and production of design tools.

デザイン・コンサルテーション業務内容

1. 建築・インテリア・外構・ランドスケープの照明計画
建築家、ランドスケープデザイナー、デベロッパー、公共機関とのコラボレーションで、個人住宅からオフィス、ホテル、商業施設、公園まで、屋内外のプロジェクトで美しい光環境と人々の光環境の体験をデザインします。初期のデザイン構想から建設現場管理までプロジェクト予算とのバランスを取りながら、建築・空間・不動産の社会的・文化的・経済的価値を向上させます。

2. 都市・大型開発の照明マスタープラン・ガイドラインの策定
都市計画者、開発業者や政府機関とのコラボレーションで、照明によって都市や建物を安全、快適、健康的、そして特徴的、個性的にするための照明のマスタープランやガイドラインを作成して、その都市の未来の策定をアシストします。中長期的な視野に立って照明システムの改善やアップグレードも考慮して、経年で変わらない普遍的な価値と最新の照明技術の両方を考えて最適な提案をします。

3. 業界・領域横断的な光・照明のデザインとコンサルテーション
光環境デザイナーの視点から、照明器具製品や光にまつわる建築仕上げ材料などの新規開発や改善のアドバイスをいたします。また、マーケティング戦略、最新の市場トレンド、製品選定、および海外顧客、エンドユーザーの嗜好などのアドバイスをいたします。

4. 照明器具の開発・照明業界のビジネスコンサルテーション
光と照明に関する専門的な知識を共有して、建築、都市の領域以外の様々な分野や業界と横断的なアプローチでコラボレーションをして、問題解決に取り組んだり、新しいアイデアやビジネスを創出して、世の中を一歩前進させます。

5. 光環境・照明に関する共同研究・研究支援
光環境デザイナーの実践的な経験と視点から、照明と光環境に取り組む研究者や企業の方々とのコラボレーションで、研究計画の策定や実験協力、デザインツールの企画制作などのアシストをいたします。

Design Philosophy

Keep things ambiguous.

The name of our company, ambiguous, expresses our desire to live a life that is rich in ambiguity, and to have a relaxed mind. It is important to draw lines and make things easy to understand, and this is the essence of human intelligence, but it can also create division and bias. Rather, ambiguity is the source of flexibility, diversity, richness, and depth, and the ability to perceive this as a sense of taste is a strength of human beings.
In design, simplification and abstraction are the usual means of making things easier to use and understand, but we must not forget that there is a rich diversity and complexity that can be eliminated by such simplification and abstraction. We believe that good design is about creating a gradation between fragmentation and chaos. When we look around the natural world, what we see there is always a beautiful gradation.

Yusuke Hattori
Founder, Principal Designer, BArch, MArch, WELL AP

Yusuke is a lighting designer born in Tokyo.
With a background in architectural engineering and environmental psychology, he shares his unique expertise with the world. After gaining experience as an Associate Director at Lighting Planners Associate, he founded his own lighting design studio, ambiguous.
In 2019, he was selected as one of the 40Under40 designers by the Lighting Design Awards. He has earned the trust of clients and architects with his meticulous work, from private residences to urban master plans.
By gently integrating form and function, he enhances the visual and emotional experience of a space through his lighting environment design while also prioritizing regenerative lighting design methods that prioritize the natural environment, including human beings, by constantly exploring new design techniques and lighting technologies.

Member /

IALD (International Association of Lighting Designer)
IDA (International Dark sky Association)
AIJ (The Architecture Institute of Japan)

Lecturer /

National University of Singapore DOA (Design of Architecture)
National University of Singapore DID (Division of Industrial Design)
Singapore University of Technology and Design (Architecture and Sustainable Design)
Singapore University of Social Science (Master Course of Gerontology)
Chulalongkorn University (Faculty of Architecture)
Keio University (Department of System Design Engineering))

Award /

2024 - Corrugated House -[d]arc Award Shortlisted

2022 -St James Power Station -IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2021 -Magical Shores at Siloso-[d]arc Award Winner FIRST PLACE
2021 -Jewel Changi Airport -[d]arc Award SECOND PLACE
2020 –Jewel Changi Airport –dezeen Award
2020 -Jewel Changi Airport -IES Illumination Award / Award of Excellence
2019 -40 under 40 Lighting Designer
2017 -CapitaGreen -IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2015 -Victoria Theatre & Victoria Concert Hall -IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2014 -PARKROYAL on Pickering-IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2013 -Gardens by the Bay, Bay South -IES Illumination Award / Award of Distinction
2010 -ION Orchard -IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2010 -Tang Plaza Façade Enhancement -IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2007 -OMOTESANDO akarium-IES Illumination Award / Award of Excellence

服部 祐介
代表・光環境デザイナー

光環境デザイナー。東京工業大学工学部建築学科卒業、同大学院にて環境心理学を学ぶ。そのユニークな専門知識を生かしたデザインを世界に発信している。Lighting Planners Associateでアソシエイトディレクターとして経験を積んだ後、自身の光環境デザインスタジオ「ambiguous」を設立。2019年にLighting Design Awardsで40Under40のデザイナーに選ばれる。個人住宅から都市のマスタープランまで、その緻密な仕事で施主や建築、デザイナーの信頼を得ている。形と機能をゆるやかに統合することで、空間の視覚的・感情的な体験を高める光環境デザインを提供するとともに、人間を含めた自然環境を優先する持続可能なデザイン手法を創造することを目標に、常に新しいデザイン手法と照明技術を探求している。

所属団体 /

IALD (国際照明デザイナー協会)
IDA (国際ダークスカイアソシエーション)
AIJ (日本建築学会)

講師 /

シンガポール国立大学建築学部 ランドスケープデザイン学科
シンガポール国立大学デザイン学部 工業デザイン学科
シンガポール技術芸術大学建築学部サステイナブルデザイン学科
シンガポール社会科学大学老年学修士課程
チュラロンコーン大学建築学部国際建築学科
慶応義塾大学理工学部システムデザイン工学科

受賞歴 /

2024 - Corrugated House -[d]arc Award Shortlisted

2022 -St James Power Station -IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2021 -Magical Shores at Siloso-[d]arc Award Winner FIRST PLACE
2021 -Jewel Changi Airport -[d]arc Award SECOND PLACE
2020 –Jewel Changi Airport –dezeen Award
2020 -Jewel Changi Airport -IES Illumination Award / Award of Excellence
2019 -40 under 40 Lighting Designer
2017 -CapitaGreen -IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2015 -Victoria Theatre & Victoria Concert Hall -IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2014 -PARKROYAL on Pickering-IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2013 -Gardens by the Bay, Bay South -IES Illumination Award / Award of Distinction
2010 -ION Orchard -IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2010 -Tang Plaza Façade Enhancement -IES Illumination Award / Award of Merit
2007 -OMOTESANDO akarium-IES Illumination Award / Award of Excellence