Archival material, Mobile Supply System 移動式供應系統檔案資料

One of Umeda Masanori’s earliest designs, the Mobile Supply System won the prestigious Braun Prize in 1968. At the time, the housing crises of the post–Second World War years, combined with radically changing lifestyles, had prompted widespread interest among many designers in prefabricated ‘plug-in architecture’ that was modular, mobile, flexible, and inexpensive. Conceived shortly after Umeda joined the studio of the prominent Italian designers Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni in Milan, his response comprises three separate units serving many of the functions of a typical dwelling: a kitchen, a bathroom, and an entertainment system. The box-like units, which unfold to reveal their contents, sport the rounded corners and white, sanitary finishes of space-age design and could be easily reconfigured, though they were never realised at full scale.

This series contains notes and sketches related to the design of the object, a set of design drawings, some press and publicity material, and a telegram informing Umeda that this design had won the Braun Prize.