art, somewhere in between New York and Tokyo

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Sekiya Masato of Planet Creations’ latest work is Lifted House IV, a private residence in Hyogo Japan.

The uniqueness of the original site, which was sloped like a horse’s back and surrounded by hills, became the guiding force for the completed design.  Emphasis was placed on relationship-building; namely, the dynamic relationship between the land, which appears to close in on you as you approach the site, and the structure itself.

On the ground level is a private study, a guest room and a cloakroom. On the 1st floor is the bedroom, living/dining room, kitchen and bathroom.

I really like how the garage, which connects to the home via outdoor walkway, adds to the presence of the structure. It’s almost a bit intimidating.

Related:

• Asukadai House by Planet Creations

Akihiro Kumagaya recently completed a branding campaign for VIDA, a beauty salon. Very clever!

Related:

• Neon Tie by Akihiro Kumagaya
• Peelers by Akihiro Kumagaya

Two months ago it suddenly became super-easy to get your hands on Noto Fusai’s creative t-shirts. Their new online shop carries all their classics, as well as 2 newbies which were designed to commemorate the launch of their new store, as well as the 5th anniversary of the husband and wife designer-duo team.

“Whisk” is being called the first ever t-shirt to merge art with the kitchen.

“Pen and Art” comes with a pen and a pen-insert. You can even get creative and scribble a little something on it.

Y+M design office, an architectural firm headquartered in Kobe, recently completed Demado House in Kanagawa, Japan. Demado (meaning bay window) House understandably gets its name from its characteristically protruding windows.

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The structure reminds me a bit of those stress balls that you squeeze in your hand. As you apply pressure, the ball oozes out of the cracks between your fingers creating somewhat random protrusions. The result is certainly entertaining to look at and would be even more entertaining to live in.

You can read my previous post on y+M design office in which I featured Kaidan no ie (Stairs House) back in October 2009. This year Stairs House has been winning all sorts of design and architecture awards left and right.

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.

As promised, here is a roundup of some of the goodies procured during our latest trip to Tokyo.

Our first stop was Watashi no Heya, a droolworthy shop I  have, well, drooled over in the past.

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Next was FrancFranc, where we picked up this adorable coffee maker for 2. It’s come in handy as we try to adjust back to NY-time.

Although we own some, we picked up another pair of pig mugs designed by Kenjiro Sano. Not only do they make great gifts, they are also responsible for one of my favorite quotes: “it’s one of those things that’s not really funny but to Japanese people it’s f*ing hilarious.”

Our last stop was Afternoon Tea, where we picked up some cute ceramics for the kiddies, who are finally graduating from the indestructible IKEA plates. I immediately fell in love with the egg (tamago) pasta plates, as well as those cereal bowls.

Pictured above is the London motif but we also picked up the NY version.

How we managed to carry all this back without breaking anything is still a mystery to me.

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It’s been over a year since Kotaro Ide and his architectural firm ARTechnic wowed the community with their 2008 work Shell.  The holiday villa in Karuizawa, Japan, characterized by two concrete tubes with oval sections, understandably went on to win several design awards.

We hadn’t seen any new work from the group until now. M&M Rosie, while not quite as unique and defined as their previous work, is nonetheless stunning in its geometric form. It stands as a private residence in Setagaya, Tokyo.

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If you happen to have your hands on the August 2010 issue of Wallpaper, there is a special present inside for you – a totally modernist paper cut-out house by one of our favorite architects, Ryuji Nakamura. Need. Want. Must have.

Related:

• Ryuji Nakamura’s Hechima Chair & Insect Cage
• Blossom by Ryuji Nakamura
• Ryuji Nakamura

Today my little blog turns 3. I was planning something special but this jet lag really has me in a headlock and I never was able to execute. So it’s just going to have to wait till next year. Instead, I will just keep it simple by saying ‘thank you’ to all the readers, past and present, that have helped shape what Spoon & Tamago is today. You guys are awesome!

Yasumichi Morita of interior design firm Glamorous recently completed the newest FrancFranc shop (which I have compared to Crate & Barrel in the past) in the upscale Aoyama area of Tokyo. I made a couple purchases here during my trip to Japan, which I will share at a later time.

Also in the past I have had mixed feelings for Morita’s work, which straddles a delicate balance between classy and corny, but this time around I have only good things to say about the awesome space.

And yet again, in the past, Yasumichi Morita appeared on this site previously with rapper verbal in a photo shoot for Louis Vuitton. And coincidentally, both showed up at the opening party in May – the latter being a surprise guest DJ for the event.

The new flagship store, which, for its vast scale, is also known as FrancFranc Village, will include several in-shop collaborations such as the very first Monocle shop in Japan.