Spoon & Tamago

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yumaki toothbrush

Yumaki was founded by a Scandinavian Product Design company and a Japanese Oral Care factory, who have been working together to bring design, functionality and personality to an everyday item that is often overlooked: the toothbrush. The current collection comes in 18 different varieties and new models and collections are coming out ever season.

The Japanese manufacturers of the product has more than 100 years of experience in producing professional oral hygiene products. The brand’s “not-just-looks” design and knowledge of oral care is apparent on their website that gives oral care tips and offers yearly subscriptions – Yumaki will send you a new tooth brush every 3 months as recommend by professional dentists.

Toothbrushes are $10 each and 1 year subscription starts at $35.
Learn more about these functional and stylish toothbrushes at the yumaki website.

Fish-shaped wooden spatula for kids

April 25, 2011 / Johnny / Comments Off

A tweet from earlier this morning got me thinking about how to make food and cooking more kid-friendly. I did a little digging through my archives and came acorss sakana kibera, a wooden spatula shaped like a fish. It was designed by Rie Isono in 2008 and is handcrafted by Hiroyuki Inoue. Adorable.

It’s available in 3 different types of wood and retails for 2,625 yen. You can request to purchase it from White Rabbit Express Express.

Related:

inside out by Takeshi Hosaka Architects

April 25, 2011 / Johnny / 1 Comment

Usually when it rains inside a home the reaction is distress, followed by anger and then lawsuits. However, not for Takeshi Hosaka Architects, who’s latest home, “inside out,” was designed for a couple and their two cats, all who wanted the freedom to go in and out while always remaining within their home. The home’s bedrooms and bathrooms are surrounded by a membrane of carefully designed openings that allow wind, light, sun and rain to enter into that section of the home.

As it turns out, Takeshi Hosaka Architects knows a thing or two about bringing the outdoors, in. If you don’t believe me check out the other posts we’ve done on the architect. He is clearly very interested in the relationship between habitat and environment.

Related:

Bottle Flower series by Makoto Azuma

April 22, 2011 / Johnny / 1 Comment

This is our 2nd environment-related post to commemorate Earth Day.

Floral artist Makoto Azuma has been challenging our relationship with plants for quite some time now. It’s not a commonly discussed topic, especially amongst floral designers who make their living by often ending the life of plants in order to make a pretty display. But Azuma, whether he is creating an installation of flowers to be stomped on during a performance, or removing an age-old bonsai from its soil and hanging it in mid-air, approaches the subject matter head on.

In his latest series Bottle Flower, which he has been releasing over the last few days, Azuma creates bold yet somewhat disturbing pieces comprised of flowers stuffed into glass bottles like sardines and then filled with water. The flowers, which are shockingly beautiful but also clearly dead, invoke images of laboratory experiments in which body parts are preserved in some sort of embalming fluid. The existential project, which finds beauty in both the life and the death of his material, is certainly an appropriate one for earth day.

Oritsunagumono by Takayuki Hori

April 22, 2011 / Johnny / 1 Comment

click images to enlarge

Since today is Earth Day, we have 2 environment-related posts lined up, both with radically different concepts and means of communicating them.

We first came across Takayuki Hori’s work when reviewing the Mitsubishi Chemical Junior Designer Awards – an award show that invites student designers to submit their senior thesis works to be judged by a group of industry professionals. Takayuki Hori’s work Oritsunagumono (things folded and connected) was awarded 1st prize. Hori embeds the ancient craft of origami with an environmental theme by using the skeleton of a sea turtle, waterfowl and 6 other endangered animals printed on a translucent material.

The material is then folded into the shape of the animal. The stark and eerily poignant origami prints reminds us that, much like the way the craft has been passed down from generation to generation, these animals that have accompanied us for thousands of years now face extinction.

What’s has changed since our original post back in January is that Christopher from Colossal went and got in touch with the designer and obtained some previously unavailable images, which he recently shared.

Casaurus by Koichiro Hoshino

April 21, 2011 / Johnny / 2 Comments

click images to enlarge | courtesy

I have a soft spot for cool, creative kids stuff, which is why I probably kept coming back to this amazing project by student designer Koichiro Hoshino. He created a dinosaur-themed bookshelf/playground for his senior thesis exhibition at Tokyo University of the Arts. At the time I couldn’t find any information about the designer. But after conducting another search it was revealed that he had established a website quite recently with more images. Jackpot!

Look how much fun those children are having! My kids would simply burst if they saw that thing.

Shigeru Ban’s Paper Partition System | Update

April 20, 2011 / Johnny / Comments Off

Four days after the earthquake struck we wrote about architect Shigeru Ban’s efforts to collect donations for simple paper partition systems in evacuation centers. These are cheap, effective ways to give evacuees some privacy and hence a little bit of normalcy in a very abnormal situation.

Some new images have come in that help to illustrate the effectiveness of these partitions so I wanted to share them.

click images to enlarge

top: taken during the Niigata earthquake (2004)
bottom: installation in Otsuchi High School Gymnasium (4.5.2011)

So far Shigeru Ban and his team have installed over 140 sets in 8 different locations. You can still donate to this cause by visiting his website where you will find the necessary information to donate.

Songs of Love for Japan – 24 hours left!

April 20, 2011 / Maddie / Comments Off

Songs of Love for Japan is a 3-day sale of inspiring music benefiting survivors of the crisis in Japan with songs. The 100-song compilation features music from artists such as Sara Bareilles, Tori Amos, The xx, The Submarines and Ani DiFranco, as well as other bands both signed and unsigned have come together to create yet another way to support Japan.

This flash sale is only available for the next 24 hours! The full album of 100 songs is available for download at $100. [See the full song list]

A limited compilation of 20 songs is also available for $20.
Wednesday: 20 Song Compilation – starts Wednesday 12:01am

Aileen Morgan – Room to Grow
Alina Smith – Kissing Tree
Artemis – Fountain of Life
Cheryl B. Engelhardt – Moving Towards LoveUnreleased
Emily Zuzik – Saudade
Fill the Silence – Push
Hope Waits – Fortune Teller
I Am Not Lefthanded – Boats
Jenni Alpert – Sweet Talk
Kate Walsh – Light & Dark
Katey Laurel – Blue Sky’s Comin’
Kings Cross – Never Say Never
Kristin Hoffmann – All Together NowUnreleased
Marina V – You Make Me BeautifulUnreleased
muMs&Aurora – Sleep Baby Sleep
Random – Cry of the PlanetUnreleased
The Cringe – Gimme Resurrection
The Perfects – New Life
World Versus Me – Transference
Zoe Noell – Just Believe

SOLFJ Team hope to raise $250,000 for ShelterBox, an international disaster relief charity.

Jun Igarashi | the construction of a state

April 19, 2011 / Johnny / Comments Off

I’m not sure if it’s the sprawling green pastures that foster imagination, or the harsh winters that force you to rethink shelter, but Hokkaido has produced some amazing architects. One of those is Jun Igarashi, 1 of 8 architects we featured in our Japanese Contemporary Architects piece back in 2008.

He has come a long way since then, as evidenced by an upcoming retrospective that will be held at Toto’s Gallery MA in Tokyo between May 13 – July 9. The construction of a state (as in the condition, not the territory) is his first ever solo exhibition since he established his own studio 15 years ago and will feature 18 of his defining pieces of work. Below is a sample of some pieces that will be included in the show.

Tea House (2006)
Tokoro District, Hokkaido
Igarashi reimagined the traditional art form that is cha-no-yu to create this submerged tea house. The rust-colored roof on top of the untreated concrete doubles as a table.

photos by Naoki Honjo (who is famous for his work using a tilt shift lens, which makes the environments appear to be miniature models)

Rectangle of Light (2007)
Sapporo City, Hokkaido
Located on a tiny plot of land, the site-specific home can be characterized by an introversion that can only be justified by its Hokkaido location. Completely isolated from the street, or any other exterior for that matter, the home lives and breathes on the ever-changing natural light that diffuses in from insulation ducts.

photos by Seiya Miyamoto | click to enlarge

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Jun Igarashi | the construction of a state
Gallery MA (Gmap)
5.13.2011 – 7.9
11：00－18：00 (closed Sun, Mon and holidays)
FREE

Global PechaKucha Night NYC | Recap

April 19, 2011 / Johnny / Comments Off

I just wanted to thank everyone who came out on Saturday to support Japan, even in such awful weather. Despite the fact that there were only 4 short days from origination to the night of the event, we had close to 300 RSVPs and (unfortunately) had to turn down many because of space constraints. However, the event was Ustreamed live (replay can be watched here.) We raised over $2000 that will go to Architecture for Humanity’s reconstruction efforts in Sendai!

click images to enlarge

It was also a great honor for me to be amongst some amazing speakers. I told Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky that this was the first time I spoke with someone I studied in college. Ha!

Speakers from left to right:
Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky
Toru Hasegawa (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia University GSAPP)
Virginia (Sales Manager at TOTO Gallery)
Masahiro Sasaki (Born and raised in Otsuchi, a town affected by Tsunami)
Johnny Strategy (me!)
Joshua Perez (U.S. representative, OpenSimSim)
Sunil Bald and Yolande Daniels of studioSUMO
Yutaka Takiura (Architecture for Humanity, Pratt Institute)
Clifford Pearson (Deputy Editor-In-Chief, Architectural Record)
Kanako Iuchi (Consultant/researcher on disaster recovery)
not pictured: Mio Uchida (Hope for Japan, Founder)

Lastly, thank you to the amazing organizers, Columbia University and TOTO USA. I can’t think of a more conducive speaking environment than one in which you are surrounded by beautiful TOTO toilets!