iF Design Award
JIDA Design Museum Selection
全国発明表彰
A digital piano with a new shape, designed to accent the interior of a contemporary room.
Reconstruction
The MODUS design seeks to attain the very essence of an electronic piano. In analyzing the piano’s keys, speakers, and cabinet, we found that the cabinet acts as a barrier between the player and the surrounding space.
Elegance
A slim, minimalist shape that accents the modern interior. The beautiful, quality finish of the MODUS’ body comes in a variety of colors, allowing owners to choose one to suit their own individual taste..
Pride
In addition to being an instrument to play, the piano possess an additional identity as an object that one places in a room. The MODUS is not intended to blend with its surroundings, but to accent them, and add quality to the space in which it is placed.
Yoshihiro Katsumata
Designer
Yamaha Design Laboratory
Accenting space.
The MODUS F01 project had its beginnings in our quest to create a new electronic piano like nothing that had been seen before. We began by looking at what people do with an electronic piano, and what role the pianos take in their owners' lives. In doing so, we found that all that was actually required of an electric piano was a keyboard and speakers for performing, together with a cabinet to bring them together. However, we also observed that the piano held other functions that other instruments didn’t. We came to realize that the piano held an "identity" when in a room.
The electronic piano is compact, and thus can be placed with more freedom than an acoustic piano. It is also an instrument that offers its designers a freedom in construction that is not present in instruments that rely on physical structure for sound generation. All of this prompted us to begin our design by focusing more and more on the identity that this piano brings to a room.
Previously, our electronic piano designs had been aimed at making the instrument a part of the room, but with the MODUS we wanted to put its identity on display, accenting its presence in the room. There, between open space and the people around, is an instrument, and acting an interface to that instrument, a wall. The colorful board of the MODUS accents its presence in any interior space, fulfilling the role of a barrier between people, space, and music.
(text: Yamaha Design Laboratory / Ikuo Mine)
