Posts from — August 2009

The Good Design Awards expo is coming up at the end of this month and to gear things up the committee has officially released the list of products that will be on display and consequently up for a Good Design Award. I’ve been sifting through the 50 categories and 1748 products and have decided to highlight a select few that caught my attention.
Kicking it off with the product packaging category:

Product: Forest Milk
Designer: Rise Design Office
For Amita Corporation
Description: Sustainable farming applied to dairy. Cows are free to roam an unused forest 365 days a year. The cows are happy and in turn they also promote upkeep of the forest by eating grass and weeds that would normally have had to been cut away.

Product: Blue Earth Dream Packaging
Designer: Samsung
Description:  Released contiguously with Samsung’s Blue Earth solar powered cell phone, the packaging is designed without adhesives and using environmentally friendly materials. The design also encourages and facilitates 2nd usage as a picture frame or business card holder.

Architect Chiba Manabu recently updated his website with photos of the Children’s Castle, a public facility in Isahaya City that opened its doors to tots earlier this year. Isahaya City is located in central Nagasaki and is the 3rd largest city (by population) of the prefecture. Isahaya has gone through numerous changes, the most recent in 2005 when it merged with 5 smaller provinces.   The city suffered somewhat of an identity crisis but this new facility hopes to resolve that and bring together children and families.

The elevated site, with a view of the city, attempts to distill the essence of play into themes of 1) a will to live, 2) family ties, 3) extraordinary (rather than ordinary) and 4) volunteerism.  I think the site looks awesome. It adapts to its environment and has a creative, flowing vibe that would inspire discovery in any child!

Photos by Masao Nishikawa Photography Studio

Related:

• Weekend House Alley by Chiba Manabu

I wanted to finish off the week by profiling a recently completed home designed by Tomoko Taguchi Architects. By the way, it’s nice to see a woman’s perspective in the largely male-dominant profession of architecture, especially in Japan.

TRAPEZIUM was designed for a young couple who had 2 requests, a performance hall where their musician friends could perform, and to be able to leave their curtains open without worrying about neighbors peering in. To a certain degree the 2 requests work against each when the objective is to create a welcoming environment where many people are free to come and go, while maintaining a level of privacy. However, I think the architect succeeded immensely in marrying the two.

Taguchi also managed to incorporate her own holistic approach to architecture. She believes that the intrinsic value of a home should not be assessed mainly by square footage or the number of bedrooms, but how much sunlight it lets in, or the cross-ventilation, or the view; aspects that ultimately amount to your quality of life within the home.

The editors over at ElleDeco Japan got the royal treatment when they were allowed a sneak peak at some of Moma Design Store’s Autumn releases. One product in particular caught my eye immediately and that was this clever set of espresso cups with interlocking bamboo coasters. Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out who designed it. Any idea? Anyone?

The 1 clue I have is that it won an award in a student design contest.

UPDATE: thanks to commenter Cl. we found out that it was designed by Fellina Sok-Cham. Yay!

Oh how I wish I lived in California! According to his website, Mitsuru Koga – known for his small-scale work with sea stones and other objects of nature – will be conducting a leaf-cutout workshop this weekend at Tortoise in Venice, CA. Aren’t these cutouts amazing?

“An insect makes exquisite cutouts in a leaf.” – Mitsuru Koga

Related:

• Driftwood Dinosaurs by Mitsuru Koga
• Sea Stone Rocks by Mitsuru Koga

Architect Akihisa Hirata will be showing one of his latest creations, Flame Frame, at the Taka Ishii Gallery through the end of the year.

Hirata first gained an international fan-base with his biomorphic “csh” chair, which he showed in last year’s Frieze Art Fair. I’m not too sure how to pronounce it either…

Once again taking his cue from naturally occurring elements, Hirata’s Flame Frame – made from pressed aluminum – emulates the autonomy of flames. The piece is quite beautiful on its own but when repeated numerous instances it can be used as a partition or even a chandelier-like lighting fixture.

Related:

• IenoIe by Akihisa Hirata

I’m convinced that famed Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki has a twin brother separated at birth, or is leading 2 lives; one as an eccentric and controversial photographer and the other as a daring and stylish Italian gentleman.

via  The Sartorialist

One of my top picks in my Tokyo Design Guide is cow books, a very attractive alternative bookshop in the heart of trendy Nakameguro. The interior was designed by architect Shin Ohori, a good friend of the founder of Cow Books, Kobayashi Setsumasa. Anyway, it turns out that the wilderness buff recently completed Mountain Research, a log cabin/weekend house or something. Unfortunately, there’s no accompanying text to explain the work but it looks awesome! Totally makes me want to go camping!

I’m always on the lookout for awesome kid furniture and this is my recent obsession; “baby in table” by Oji Masanori. It was completed in late 2008 and is part of OTOMO, a joint project between Japanese furniture maker Toa Ringyo and Sincol, an importer of Italian upholstery.

The beauty of this table is in the way it adapts to a growing family. At first it’s a baby chair and a table, then it’s a table that also holds books. And the chair doubles as a stepping stool. I can just picture little huey drawing while his baby sister sits in the table watching him (she can stare at her big brother for hours and be content).

Related:

• Switch Tray by Oji Masanori

Founded earlier this year, BAKOKO is a design company based out of Tokyo and run by UK Native Alastair Townsend and Kayoko Ohtsuki. They were kind enough to send over a video of a recent talk they did at Pecha Kucha in Tokyo late last month. If you’re into architecture at all I highly recommend you devote 8 minutes of your time to check out Alastair discuss the technology and process that went into some of his recent projects. fyi – The Shishi Odoshi rain shelter is gnarly.

BAKOKO Pecha Kucha Vol. 64 – SuperDeluxe, Tokyo from BAKOKO on Vimeo.