Category — Furniture

Eiji Sumi of Design Water, a design practice based in Gifu, Japan, recently updated his portfolio. Browsing through it I spotted these gems: a reworked set of chairs and desks for an elementary school in Japan. There is no text to accompany it so I can only speculate, but it looks like he was working with a lot of recycled materials here. Very clever!

Architecture office STAD, led by up and coming architect Toru Shimokawa, has some great ideas for organizing books. In the past I’ve seen a lot of ideas for furniture that incorporates book storage (such as the magtable, bibliochaise and bookshelf coffee table). But STAD’s Plywood Table for Books (2010) is perhaps my all-time favorite.

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Not only is it adept in storage but its structure is inherently space-conscious in that it completely collapses. Fantastic!

Massive (2008) is a very simple yet infinitely customizable series of bookend. They come in 3 different sizes and by turning them upside down they can essentially adapt to any number or size of books.

Case-Real Architects, headed by Koichi Futatsumata, unveiled a new bar they designed in Fukuoka. Dreieck Park, which is Triangular Park in German, gets its name from its strategic location on the top floor of a building, overlooking a lone park situated in the middle of a busy shopping district. The bar is characterized by an incredibly sexy table that swells out into the center of the bar.

The pendant lights were designed to sit above a specified horizon so as to not obstruct views of the central window. The armchairs were also specifically designed for long drinks (and maybe even some pour-your-heart-out-moments with the bartender. The cool thing about the table is, depending on where you sit, you can either feel very intimate or very distanced from the bartender.)

Related:

• Hammock by Koichi Futatsumata

Hisae Igarashi of Igarashi Design has designed a series of eco-friendly furniture made from laminated wood. The unique process enables distorted ovals  and other odd shapes to take effect, as well as an intentional gradation of shades.

I especially love the shape of that table and how, depending on where you sit, you can either be closer or farther away from your partner. The furniture was all produced in Japan by the artisans at Hida Industries.

The collection also utilizes all the imperfections such as knots, instead of tossing them as scraps. The roughness – much like the crisp crust of a baguette – is simply what wooden furniture was meant to feel like in its natural form.

click to enlarge | all photos by Nacasa&Partners

Enigmatic Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka is being given the solo exhibition treatment at the MUSEUM. beyond museum in Seoul, Korea.

To me, the most astonishing piece in this show is the optical glass bench, “Waterfall.”  It so effectively distills form and material down to the basics that I am having trouble putting my thoughts into words.

Via architecturephoto.net

Related:

• Collabs: Camper x Tokujin Yoshioka
• media skin by Tokujin Yoshioka

If you will engage in a walk down memory lane, in early April I posted pictures of an experimental new material called Paperwood. The ecologically-sensitive plywood was developed, in part, by Drill Design, and was to become commercially available in 2010. Well, the design unit has recently uploaded pictures of what furniture made from the material might look like.

The stools are on track to go on sale in the Fall of 2010.

I’ve been staring at this shelf for a couple days now and finally decided it would be appropriate to end the week with it. That way I can go online and see it at the top of my blog all through the weekend.

photographs by Ken Shimizu

Designed by architect Makoto Yamaguchi in 2009, the shelf possesses beautiful curvature – a rarity when discussing shelving -  and an extreme minimalist aesthetic.

Related:

• Contemporary Japanese Architects

The Milano Salone, also known as Milan Design Week, kicks off its annual show next week. I’ve always found this show to be a bit frustrating because there is so much going in so many different venues but I have yet to find a cohesive source of information that provides the basics, ie: who, what, where. So I have taken matters into my own hands: here is a roundup of Japanese designers that will be showcasing new work in Milan.

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Who: Tomoko Azumi, head of the UK-based Japanese design firm t.n.a. design
What: FLOE tables for Swarovski’s new interiors venture. Taking their cue from floating ice caps of the arctic, the low tables are embedded with several Swarovski crystals and LED lights.
Where: Triennale di Milano

What: Series of furniture for Zilio A&C
Where: Milan Fairgrounds

What: two lamps, Twiggy Lamp and Little Woods, for Japanese lighting company Maxray
Where: Sfera Showroom
source: t.n.a. April 2010 newsletter

Who: Tokyo-based designer Tokujin Yoshioka
What: Following his paper cloud sofa he designed for Italian brand Moroso in ’09, the designer will present Memory, a crumpled aluminum chair for Moroso once again.
Where: Triennale di Milano
source: dezeen

Who: Tokyo-based design firm Nendo
What: Clear Perfume Bottle; an empty perfume bottle in which the perfume is stored in the cap. A visual interpretation of the invisibility that is fragrance. It will be included in their 1% line of products.

What: line chair; possibly the skinniest. chair. ever.
Where: Galleria Antonia Jannone
source: dezeen

Who: Jun Hashimoto and Tatsuo Yamamoto of the Tokyo-based design unit books.
What: Net Chair by Jun Hashimoto (top), molded out of a  single sheet of stainless steel mesh. Mozzarella Chair (bottom) by Tatsuo Yamamoto, made from woven fabric stretched over a 2mm thick stainless steel frame.
Where: Milan Fairgrounds
source: designboom

Who: Shun Kawakami of Tokyo-based design studio Artless
What: hisomu; new collaborative work between Takashi Kawada and balloon artist Rie Hosokai aka Daisy Balloon. Just speculating, but perhaps it will resemble his previous work (pictured above) he has done with Daisy and Kawada.
Where: giuliano Fujiwara / MILANO Store

Who: Tokyo-based product designer Dan Tomimatsu
What: Yoniji (night rainbow); a new lighting project inspired by the optical phenomenon known as a moon halo.
Where: DESIGN SYMPOSIUM XXI

UPDATE (April 8, 2010)

Who: 12 Japanese designers including Oji Masanori, Papier Labo, Yen design and Proof of Guild
What: Thoughts from Japan; An extension of last year’s For Stockists exhibition as seen through the eyes of Italian handbag designer Luisa Cevese.
Where: Luisa Cevese Redizioni

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Akira Minagawa’s faux-Finnish design label mina perhonen has once again teamed up with Torafu Architects, this time to create New Study, a series of furniture which debuted at CLASKA earlier this year.

The production includes a storage system, a coffee table, stools, a rocker and a wooden trunk that transforms into a cute bench.

I love how the wooden trunk includes a nod of recognition to the mina perhonen and Dutch SENZ umbrella tie-up.

Related:

• Tamago by mina perhonen
• Arkistot by mina perhonen
• Template in CLASKA by Torafu Architects
• Boolian by Torafu Architects

Despite my initial cynicism – begging to tire of the Johnny Depp-Tim Burton-Tim Burton’s wife-tie-up – I have a renewed enthusiasm for Alice In Wonderland, which just hit theaters. Unfortunately, my day-to-day parenting responsibilities will, without a doubt, delay any form of viewing until a DVD release. But this is no reason not to have a little fun.

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When thinking about the film I keep coming back to the work of Midori Araki, a Japanese artist who creates fantastical and whimsical installations and furniture. Some of her stuff looks like it could be seamlessly placed onto the set. In 2007 she created “Spice of a Day” for the popular lifestyle goods chain Afternoon Tea.

I am also a big fan of the fun and creepy “Phantom Light” (2006) which projects unsuspected shadows onto the ceiling.

Stump (2000) was, in Araki’s own words, modeled after mankind’s very first chair. A limited series of 20 chairs were made, each with their own unique inscription. When arranged properly, they complete an entire verse from a poem.