Spoon & Tamago

Page 243 of 406

MARNA | Playful Household Items from Japan

February 5, 2013 / Maddie / Comments Off

I was really happy to see that MARNA had an exhibit at the recent NYIGF. On my last trip back to Japan, I purchased the Piggy Steamer lid and have been using it often

Piggy Steamer

Not only is it fun, and a Good Design Award winner, it is practical and easy to clean.

To my surprise, MARNA was established 140 years ago by Toramatsu Nagoya who originally started by manufacturing brushes. Now, in its fourth generation, the company continues to design, innovate and manufacture fun and functional household items.

Piggy Cup & Plate Cover

Poodle Spray Bottle Cover

Bubble Bunny Sponge

Dish Sponge

I was also delighted to see that all these MARNA kitchen accessories can be purchased through Fab for the next 6 days!

You can also check out other household products from MARNA on their website. Happy shopping!

Library House | a 20-foot high floor-to-ceiling bookshelf

February 5, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

images courtesy Shinichi Ogawa & Associates | click to enlarge

“It is a house for a client who is a great reader,” says architect Shinichi Ogawa, describing his latest residential project. The appropriately titled “Library House” was completed late last year in Tochigi and features a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf that measures almost 20-feet high. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the house was designed around this bookshelf, which acts as the focal point of the centrally located living room and dining room. However, one can’t help but question the functionality of those upper-level shelves.

But there’s plenty else to love about this home too, including its symmetrical qualities, a skylight that allows sun to enter the space, and that movie projector!

source: submission

Japan’s Most Significant Architecture According to the World’s Leading Architects

February 3, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

In 2010, Vanity Fair surveyed the world’s leading architects, critics, and deans of architecture schools, asking them what is the most significant architecture completed since 1980. The answers, based on 52 respondents were, understandably, varied. Most common were names like Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (28 votes), Renzo Piano’s Menil Collection (10 votes) and Norman Foster’s Hong Kong Shanghai Bank (7 votes).

But what we did was we put on our Japanese goggles and focused only on the Japanese architects that were named. The result is an up-close look at how Japanese architects are viewed around the world by their luminous contemporaries.

Mediatheque Building by Toyo Ito | Sendai, Japan (2001) – 8 votes

Photos by Kevin McKitrick | click to enlarge

Toyo Ito’s multi-purpose public structure (a library, art gallery, cinema, lecture theatre and cybercafé) received the most votes, including nods Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl and Stan Allen (Dean, Princeton University School of Architecture). Architects were presumably impressed by Ito’s forward-thinking ideas about how the building would become a “digital ecology” for users, as well as a series of technical advances that made the structure possible. This includes a support system of occupiable hollow tubes, as well as digital-ready media infrastructure.

Church of Light by Tadao Ando | Osaka, Japan (1989) – 5 votes

photos by flickr user buou

Japan’s celebrated master of minimal concrete clocks in at 2nd, even if you don’t count the vote he put in for himself! Located in a small residential suburb, the church is comprised of two modest buildings, arranged at an angle. There is certainly a sense of spirituality to the space where the outside world can be forgotten and the natural world emphasized vis-à-vis Ando’s manipulation of light.

Unfortunatly, those were the only 2 that received over 2 votes. Following, in no particular order, are other structures that received a single nod.

Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art by Arata Isozaki | Okayama, Japan

image courtesy City of Okayama

Multimedia Workshop by Kazuyo Sejima/SANAA | Ogaki, Japan

image courtesy City of Gifu

House in a Plum Grove by Kazuyo Sejima/SANAA | Tokyo, Japan

photo by Louise Grønlund

Spiral Building by Fumihiko Maki | Tokyo, Japan

image courtesy wikimedia commons

Shoji Ueda Museum of Photography by Shin Takamatsu | Tottori, Japan

image courtesy wikimedia commons

Emergency shelters by Shigeru Ban | various locations

image courtesy Shigeru Ban

Weekend Links from Around the Web

February 2, 2013 / Johnny / 1 Comment

I must be on some weird b-grade Japanese movie kick, but this one looks good too.

Happy setsubun-no-hi! If you’re In Tokyo tomorrow (Sunday) these people are planning to throw 1.5 tons of beans off Tokyo Tower (and so can you).

A handy guide for famous foods in every Japanese prefecture.

5 words you must know before visiting Japan.

In a sluggish publishing market, Japanese men’s fashion mags stay in style.

Did you know 82 of the world’s 100 busiest train stations are in Japan?

Tokyo Shinbun created an augmented reality newspaper app for kids.

Kengo Kuma just won a contract to design a new museum in France.

And just when you thought it was over, the latest Gangnam Style parody.

the anti-loneliness ramen bowl

February 1, 2013 / Johnny / 1 Comment

click images to enlarge

Planning on spending a lot of lonely nights with just ramen and your phone to keep you company? Well Daisuke Nagatomo and Minnie Jan of MisoSoupDesign have just the thing. They’ve created an elegant ramen bowl with a built-in iPhone dock, freeing up your hands as you slurp up your noodles.

“We did it for fun — it’s kind of sarcastic,” said Jan in an interview. “We’re not trying to promote everyone looking at their screens all the time.” And they’ve given their bowl an equally playful name – the anti-loneliness bowl. I just have 1 question: when is the iPad version coming out?

source: Japan Pulse

addLib U uses your iPhone photos to generate midcentury modern graphic albums

February 1, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

Japanese visual design firm WOW have launched a cool new app called addlib U – the 2nd in their series of addlib apps. It lets you use your phone photos to create original graphic albums in the mid-century modern style. Perfect for fans of Saul Bass’ movie posters!

For the 1st month only it’s available through itunes for $1.99 ($2.99 after that).

source: hitspaper

the toy all our action figures have been waiting for: 1/12-scale model toilets

January 31, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

To add some much-needed reality to every child’s imaginative games, Japanese toy-makers Aoshima and MileStone have collaborated on a model kit that all our action figures have been waiting for! Behold, the 1/12-scale model toilet, in both urinal and sit-down styles. The model kits will go on sale March 31, 2013 but you can preorder them on Amazon JP.

Now our action figures can engage in all those realistic, albeit less glamorous, activities.

As you can see from the picture above, the attention to detail is pretty fantastic. The toilet comes with a washlet, sanitary box, toilet paper holder and stickers. The toilet seat and cover can even open and close.

source: ITmedia

Creative Team THIRD HANDS Transforms Trash to Treasure

January 30, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

Second-Hand clothing may be the darling of hipsters in Tokyo (and abroad) but the creative team THIRD HANDS is taking it up a notch. Using their crafty skills they breathe new life into discarded items by altering them into something completely new.

baseball bat necklace

At an upcoming exhibition titled “Make Drama,” the team will debut their brand new collection of sportswear that has been altered into fashion items like shoes, hand bags and necklaces. The exhibition will be held at Pass The Baton (a trendy vintage shop in its own right) in Omotesando from 02.09.2013 – 02.24.

Tennis racket bag

third hands pass the baton (6)Judo uniform shoes

Post Books in Tokyo Periodically Replaces Their Entire Inventory

January 29, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

Did you know there’s a book shop in Tokyo that periodically replaces their entire stock of books? I guess it could be frustrating if you were looking for a book you found once and neglected to pick up. But I like how it mimics the ever-changing landscape that is Tokyo – one day a barber shop, the next day vintage clothes, another day a café.

But there is a method to their madness. Each installment features a curated selection of books based on publisher. They opened in November 2011 with a pure selection of books from German publisher Walter Koenig. And they’re just about to debut their 8th rotation (which would mean a clean sweep every 2 months), featuring books from publishers MACK, LIBRARYMAN and Pierre von Kleist Editions. They recently relocated from Yoyogi Village to LimArt (Gmap) in Ebisu. Go check it out!

a gallery space for puzzles designed like a puzzle

January 28, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

photos by Hiraku Ikeda

the architect used a computer algorithm to generate an answer to his puzzle – how to fit 144 pentacubes into a space

Housed within JAIST (Japan Institute of Science and Technology) is a gallery space whose sole purpose is to house and display Japan’s largest puzzle collection, numbering some 10,000 mind benders. There you will find a selection of roughly 200 puzzles that include rare pieces from the collection of Nob Yoshigahara, “Japan’s most celebrated inventor, collector, solver and communicator of puzzles.”

But what’s a rare puzzle collection without a proper gallery space? Enter Tatsu Matsuda Architects, who collaborated with Rinno Architecutal office to redesign the JAIST Gallery late last year. Taking a page from Yoshigahara’s penchant for mathematics, the architect used a computer algorithm to generate an answer to his puzzle – how to fit 144 pentacubes into a space and still allow for display area and the flow of people? The result is a puzzle-like space in itself, which invites visitors to enter and explore the world of puzzles.