The intricate method of Edo kiriko glass carving is a prime example of this, and the craftspeople still practising this 200-year-old skill are proud to continue such a rich and valued custom. Yet they are still modern makers and careful about restricting their work by describing it as strictly traditional.

“Tradition really is a big word, laden with lots of different meanings,” explains third generation Edo kiriko artisan Yoshiro Kobayashi.

Precise repetition is crucial to the art of Edo kiriko and years of practise and training are essential for any aspiring craftsperson. Kobayashi, like many of his peers, began his education at the tender age of 13 when he joined his father in his workshop.

“[Back then] you would shadow the senior artisans and learn from observing... you’d be up for 10 hours a day practising,” he says. “It really was gruelling work.”

He worked hard at developing his skills and admits he didn’t really feel like a true professional until he was recognised by his peers with a special award at the age of 33.

It’s a demanding apprenticeship by any measure, but the years of training are essential as this form of glasswork, which originated in the Tokyo area at the end of the Edo period, is extremely meticulous and requires a degree of perfectionism that echoes the detail-oriented nature of Japanese culture.

“The Japanese pay attention to small intricacies,” says Kobayashi. “They really do care about the details... it is almost subconscious. Something that becomes a way of life without you realising it.”

One of these people is Dutch composer and technologist Paul Oomen, who says that sound has always been his “way to imagine”.

“[As a child] I would be humming melodies that came up spontaneously, and that would evoke a world of sounds in my imagination beyond the melodies themselves,” he explains.

These early childhood explorations into what he could hear were the promising beginning of a lifelong passion, and Oomen has devoted his career to exploring the intricately layered relationship that exists between humans and the sound world they encounter.

Oomen, who lives and works in Budapest where he founded the Spatial Sound Institute in 2015, originally focused on creating sound designs composing music for theatre and opera. But in 2007 he shifted his attention to the exploration of space, sound and perception with his company 4DSOUND, where he worked with his team to create more than 70 close to a hundred spatial sound projects to date, and developed a strong interest in enhancing the experience of listening.

“The more we refine our listening experience, the more we listen spatially,” he explains. “A high-quality experience of listening means a sound system that draws no attention to itself, but draws the attention to the environment, hearing sounds as a part of and moving in the environment. The sound system is only one element, the design of the space, its interior treatment, the social aspects and – not in the least – the sound content are all elements that need to match to transform the experience as a whole.”

This delicate and labour intensive form of decorative woodcraft, which has been practised for more than 400 years and is also known as Japanese marquetry, involves the arrangement of wood pieces of different colours and textures into complex mosaic patterns with pinpoint accuracy.

It’s an extraordinarily complicated process requiring a high degree of skill and experience, which means the popularity of this unique art form has waned somewhat over the past century.

Yet one man is determined to not just continue to practise the ancient art of Yosegi but to give it a contemporary flair and promote its beauty to the world. Ken Ota is widely recognised to be a modern master of Yosegi woodmaking and he is a passionate ambassador of his craft, as committed to respecting the traditional techniques perfected over the centuries as he is eager to embrace innovation in the form.

“I want to continue and protect the tradition,” explains Ota, who works in an atelier in Hakone, Japan, the birthplace of Yosegi. “To do so, I have to change and stay innovative. It is not a matter of ‘to copy or not to be copied’, but to pursue my own originality.”

Yosegi pieces are so unique and complex that they cannot be mass produced, and the wood chosen for each handmade item intimately reflects the style and taste of the craftsperson, almost like a ‘signature’.

Such was the approach of industrial designer and tech innovator Laurence Kemball-Cook, who was determined to find a totally new creative solution to the growing global issue of climate change.

Eager to find a complementary alternative to wind and solar energy, he struck upon a novel approach during his daily commute to Loughborough University, where he was completing an Industrial Design and Technology degree.

“I would pass through Victoria Station, which processes 75 million people a year, and began to think seriously about the potential to harvest some of the kinetic energy of people walking,” he says.

Kemball-Cook launched his company Pavegen in 2009, and began to develop a clever new paving system. It uses the weight of pedestrian footfall to compress a series of electro-magnetic generators, creating a rotary motion that produces small amounts of energy that can be collected and stored in batteries or deployed locally to power applications such as lighting, sensors and data transmission.

He immediately began looking for opportunities to promote his smart flooring solution, and initially had to resort to some unorthodox methods to attract new clients.

“To get our first sale, we installed a Pavegen tile on a building site without permission and then used social media to successfully persuade the developer to acquire a Pavegen system,” he admits. “Since then we have attracted an international client base, a network of international partners and a senior team.”

It didn’t take long for news to spread about the Pavegen system, and to date Kemball-Cook’s team have installed over 200 permanent and experiential projects in 30 countries around the world, including Dupont Circle in Washington DC and various locations at the centre of the city of London.

“Right from the very first prototypes, our tech has generated great interest, from businesses wanting to work with us to a diverse group of investors and, of course, the people using Pavegen,” he says.