Japanese design

Aalto’s Villa Mairea in Finland

June 20, 2009

Aalto’s Villa Mairea in Finland

Alvar Aalto’s Villa Mairea in Noormarkku, Finland, built between 1937 and 1939 as a rural retreat, is considered one of the greatest houses of the 20th century. Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who curated a major retrospective of Aalto’s work at the Barbican in London in 2007, says photographs give no real sense of Aalto’s buildings.

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More Paul Rudolph houses – exteriors and interiors

May 26, 2009

More Paul Rudolph houses – exteriors and interiors

More houses by Paul Rudolph. I’m not sure why I like him so much; maybe it’s the feeling that every space is designed for a party, or the use of white, or that he went so glam/space age in the 60s and 70s.

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Japanese interiors – updated traditional farmhouses

April 2, 2009

Japanese interiors – updated traditional farmhouses

The photo above shows the central living area of a rural farmhouse on the border of Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures. The house was restored by Kenji Tsuchisawa who bought it as a rundown heap when he was only 20, after seeing a photograph of a traditional Japanese farmhouse on a Tokyo magazine cover.

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Traditional Japanese scarecrows

April 1, 2009

Traditional Japanese scarecrows

The bottom photo shows a functioning scarecrows made of indigo-dyed hemp. The original book caption reads “The bold design of this piece of shibori-dyed hemp by Seizo Ishikawa, a farmer, seems at home working as a scarecrow by a newly harvested rice field.” The birds in Japan must have been accustomed to seeing farmers in real Japanese indigo yukatas, waving their arms.

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Categories: design, Uncategorised

The Japanese live comfortably in tiny spaces. Could we?

February 24, 2009

The Japanese live comfortably in tiny spaces. Could we?

In the western world, 750 sq ft apartments can seem really small, even for just two people. The excerpt below is from an interesting article by Nold Egenter, a Swiss architectural anthropologist, on the cultural influences that allow the Japanese to live comfortably in what North Americans would consider small spaces.

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Categories: design, Uncategorised

Origami shoe by Sipho Mabona

This origami was created for Japanese shoe company ASICS by Sipho Mabona of Mabona Origami. Original video is here. Celebrating corporate advertising isn’t really our thing, but this little movie is pretty engaging and it has, not surprisingly, won many of the world’s top animation and advertising awards.

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Terunobu Fujimori, Japanese architecture historian turned architect

February 7, 2009

Terunobu Fujimori, Japanese architecture historian turned architect

Terunobu Fujimori has been called the world’s only “surreal architect.” Obviously this is false, but there is a fantastical quality about his work that isn’t typical among architects, even when they’re trying for the new, strange or sci-fi.

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Rice cake blossoms for the Japanese “Little New Year”

February 5, 2009

Rice cake blossoms for the Japanese “Little New Year”

From the National Museum: of Ethnography in Japan: “At the end of the Edo period, when the exhibited house was constructed, villagers of Akiyama mainly grew beans and such millet grains as cockspur, foxtail millet, and buckwheat.

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Categories: design, Uncategorised

Tetsu Teahouse in Japan, by Terunobu Fujimori

February 3, 2009

Tetsu Teahouse in Japan, by Terunobu Fujimori

Minimalism and fantasy, together. The interior of this teahouse is simple and modern, while the fantastical exterior looks like something from a Hiyao Miyazaki film. The interior view of the sliding wooden doors or shutters is just beautiful.

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