Posts from — December 2009

images courtesy goen | click to enlarge

Koukoku Hihyou (広告批評; Advertising Criticism) is a monthly journal of – you guessed it – advertising criticism. Originally started in 1979 by Yukichi Amano, the publication announced in 2008 that it would be shutting down, stating that it’s last issue will be April 2009.

But they decided to go out with a bang, hiring art director Chie Morimoto for their editorial designs throughout their final year. In a statement from the designer, she said that her designs will be intended as actual advertisements. The result is what appear to be a painstaking amount of manual labor in that everything from the logo to the table of contents is created in collage style of cutouts pasted together.

Brooklyn-based Japanese designer Takeshi Miyakawa recently updated his website with new images. Although I don’t believe the work is necessarily new (hard to tell because there are no dates), there were some pieces that I hadn’t seen before, such as the Zero Shift table and the Gang of 4 storage unit.

Zero Shift. By sliding the two pieces, you can change the configurations and size according to your room. It can also be used for storage, i suppose.

Gang of 4. Four different-colored bookshelves that can be configured in multiple ways.

Miyakawa first landed on my, and probably many others’, radar screen when he showcased his work at BKLYN DESIGNS in 2008. His fractal 23 storage unit and rite of spring, an installation first shown at BKLYN DESIGNS in 2009, became immediate internet sensations, and rightly so. I remain a huge fan of his work and, if I had the moolah, would love to purchase one of his pieces from Voos Furniture (who has them priced in the low 5-digit range).

Fractal 23 ($19,000)

Rite of Spring

My latest post for inhabitots features Rina Ono’s Cowakka, a hancrafted handle perfect for all the small straphangers of the city! Read the post here.

I decided to omit it from the post, but the handle was manufactured by Takahashi Kougei, who also worked with Oji Masanori to create his gorgeous KAMI series of cups.

My dear friend Shun Okubo, a jewelry designer based in Tokyo, has a Christmas display up at the store WALL on the 1st floor of Laforet Harajuku. The shop is known for their their carved-out gallery that showcases the work of up and coming artists and designers.

His jewelry is also on display at the flagship Daikanyama location of the hip boutique FRAPBOIS, as well as the Aoyama and Kyoto locations. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, check it out!

I love his work! Here is a selection of some of my favorites but you can check out his full flickr stream.

(click on the smaller images to enlarge!)

In an announcement made last night, we learned that Studio Ghibli will be releasing a new film during the summer of 2010, two years since their last film, Ponyo. The film will be titled, The Borrower Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ) and will be based on the british tale The Borrowers, an enchanting story about miniature people living under the floorboards of a home.

Besides the fact that any new Ghibli release is newsworthy in my opinion, the real reason this story caught my attention was because I instantly recalled my parents reading this story to me as a child. Details are murky but I remember the excitement of how the little people would borrow items from their neighbors upstairs and use them in ways never thought of before. Toshio Suzuki, the producer of Ghibli movies since 1991, spoke at the press conference saying, “in a society based on mass-consumption of stuff, we thought the concept of borrowing was relevant for our times.”

It’s a well known fact that Hayao Miyazaki, as he grows old, has been passing the director baton to the up and coming. But I can’t say I’ve ever enjoyed a non-Miyazaki directed Ghibli film. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be checking out the directorial debut of Hiromasa Yonebayashi, a previous animator for the company.

via Nikkei News

Remember Nowhere But Hayama, the one of 3 resorts designed by Yasutaka Yoshimura? Well back in April I wrote about it and mentioned that the last of the three, Nowhere But Sajima, was opening later in the year. Well we now have visual confirmation that the resort, which is run by the architects wife Michiyo Yoshimura, is in business.They also got a nice mention in the December 2009/ January 2010 issue of the British magazine Monocle. You can read the article here for more information on the project.

Japanese architects Atelier Tekuto have updated their website with images of The Japanese Pavilion, a project to disassemble a vacant traditional home in rural Japan and transport it to Gondar, Ethiopia where it is reassembled into a working home. The joint project between several parties, which included the City of Gondal and the Society for Research on Traditional Japanese Homes was announced in August 1, 2008 and came to a close exactly 1 year later.

Before the relocation

After the relocation

According to the Society for Research on Traditional Japanese Homes – a non-profit organization who advocates the reusing of abandoned traditional Japanese homes – there are 30,000 “high-quality” homes in Shimane Prefecture alone that have been vacant for over 5 years. They also continue to argue that, on average, these homes, if destroyed, would create 30 tons of rubble. If you were to incinerate them it would release 15 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.  And according to Atelier Tekuto’s estimates, the entire process – from disassembling, shipping and reassembling – could save the environment in excess of 8.4 tons of C02.

Due to some of the infrastructure constraints in Gondar, Atelier Tekuto installed a water purification system that would convert rainwater to drinking water, as well as solar roof panels that would provide the necessary energy to power the pumps and lighting.
The space is currently being utilized for vocational training.

TNA Architects, known for their daring endeavors to construct homes in harsh environments, such as in the middle of forests and on rocky mountain ledges, have recently updated their website with Direction House, or maybe Directional House?  – I’m not sure what the appropriate translation for 方の家 would be.

As you can see, their choice for sites remains constant and I love how the pillars extend through the rooms creating partitions. TNA was one of my top picks and included in the Contemporary Japanese Architects piece I did back around the beginning of 2008.

Related:

• Yard House by TNA Architects
• Contemporary Japanese Architects | TNA

On Friday the Whitney Museum announced the list of artists selected to participate in the Whitney Biennial from February 25 through May 30 2010. Naturall, the majority of constituents are newcomers and one of them is Aki Sasamoto, a Brooklyn-based Japanese artist practicing in the media of performance and installation.

“Secrets of My Mother’s Child” (2009)

Unfortunatly, I haven’t had the opportunity to see any of the recent Columbia grad’s work in person but if you are interested in learning more, Ashley Rawlings (who I had the utmost pleasure hosting for lunch several weeks ago) has a piece on her in the latest issue of ArtAsiaPacific, in which he discusses, among other things, the curious piece above.

via art observed

Related:

• Ouch | 2008 Whitney Biennial

Architect Chiba Manabu recently updated his website with 2 new residential projects completed earlier this year. First is kif, a complex of rental units that include residential and commercial. I’m always interested in knowing how much these types of “designer apartments” go for so I did some digging and found this listing which has the units for between 220,000 and 280,000 yen ($2,400 – $3,200) per month. That’s actually not bad considering your steps away from the hip nabe of Kagurazaka.

Next is Terracehouse in Komazawa, another swanky part of Tokyo. These are condos that are listed for 69,800,000 yen ($790K). (click on the smaller images to enlarge)

Related:

• Children’s Castle by Chiba Manabu
• Weekend House Alley by Chiba Manabu