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designer
engineer
and sometimes
rice farmer


designing for
human
experience
existence

about me


kenta kondo is a mechanical engineer by training, designer in practice, and social critic at heart. he lives in an experimental eco-village outside of tokyo where he spends half his time designing and half his time rice-farming. he yearns for alternative ways of being and, however futile, revolts through hands-on prototyping.

work:

freelance consultant (2024-present)
  >design
  >engineering
  >futuring
  >permaculture

ideo tokyo: senior designer/engineer (2019-2023) 
  >design
  >engineering
  >consulting 

sharkninja: senior mechanical engineer (2017-2019)
  >system engineer
  >airflow r+d
  >product architecture
  >manufacturing dfm
  >human factors

education:

brown university: sc.b. mechanical engineering 
(magna cum laude)

risd: nasa studio, mit studio, shoemaking

design awards:

good design award 2022 - ikou
reddot design award 2021 - shark ultra cyclone
good design award 2020 - shark cordless stick
reddot design award 2020 - shark rocket cordelss pro
 
public exhibits:

irex 2023 - bridgestone 
design touch 2023 - izanai 
roger williams natural history museum 2017 - mav risd

public speaker:

forecast condensced 2024 @ berlin science week
design matters tokyo 2024
asiba festival panel 2024
design matters tokyo 2023 (workshop)

media:

sumu 2024 
near future laboratory podcast 2023
tokyo artbeat -  reflections on water 2023
core 77 - Zest Spice 2017
 
book recommendations:

myth of syphisus - albert camus
the stranger - albert camus
dispossesed - ursula k. le guin
crime and punishment - fyodor dostoyevsky
moby dick - herman melville
frankenstein; or the modern prometheus - mary shelly
zen and art of motorcycle maintenance - robert m. pirsig
thinking in systems - donella h. meadows 
the beauty of everyday things - yanagi soetsu

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kenta kondo                   (he/them)