Hasta La Ideas

This wooden children’s drawing case by Japanese designer Kana Nakanishi of Oiseau folds out to form a stool. 

Called Atelier Book Chair, the case is made from Japanese cypress and houses a sketchbook in one side and pouches for drawing and painting equipment in the other.

A trapezium-shaped piece of wood can be slotted onto pegs in the open case to form a seat.

Photographs are by Asaco Suzuki.

The information below is from Kana Nakanishi:

“ABC – Atelier Book Chair”

Oiseau Inc. released a product designed by Kana Nakanishi under the brand called “mother”. The product is called “ABC” standing for Atelier Book Chair. It is a portable “drawing set” that can carry drawing tools and becomes a stool. The user can take ABC anywhere they like and the place will instantly turn into one’s own atelier.

ABC is made of hinoki (Japanese cypress) from Nishiawakura village Okayama prefecture. It started as a project to utilize thinned wood from forests which is a big issue in the Japanese forest industry. The production is done by Masakyuki Oshima, a skilled craftsman residing in Nishiawakura.

ABC looks like a wooden suitcase which is light enough for a child to carry. Once opened like a book, there are detachable pockets to store drawing tools and a place for a sketchbook. The seat board is also stored inside and when the board is attached to the body, ABC will turn into a stool.

Oiseau Inc. established “mother” brand for its range of products. The name “mother” has a philosophy that the products should be used for a long period of time and the designer who produces them should be the “mother” of the product and consider carefully about the whole “life” of a product. ABC became the first product to be released under this brand.

Product name: ABC – Atelier Book Chair-
Materials: hinoki /wild cherry tree / leather
Size: W390xH260xD70 SH=270 (Weight 2000g)
Production: Masayuki Oshima (wood working shop: Youbi)
Design: Kana Nakanishi (Product Designer/Oiseau.,Inc)
mother Brand Art Director: Chikako Oguma (Graphic Designer/Oiseau.,Inc)

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Bookinist by Nils Holger Moormann	Monster by Tomáš Král and Camille Blin	Het Kruikantoor by Tim Vinke

Back in the spring of 2009, Frank Gehry seemed to be turning things around for himself, after a particularly rough patch there, what with leaks at MIT, his Beekman Tower in New York was running the risk of being trimmed way back (this was before it was renamed and wound up staying the course in terms of height), and the rumors that he was going to be removed from the Atlantic Yards project lingering, and would finally happen just two months later. The positive was that the architect had landed the coveted Dwight Eisenhower Memorial commission in DC, a $90 million project on four-acre site across from the Air and Space Museum. That news seemed to be the first of improved spirits for the architect, who has since had much more positive press (about the memorial project in particular) and much better luck. However, now two years later, the Eisenhower Memorial is already a bit behind schedule and the National Capital Planning Commission says there is still work to be done with the architect’s plans. Late this past week, the NCPC held a meeting to review Gehry’s three proposals (pdf). While uniformly positive about the plans, the Washington Examiner reports that there are still a number of concerns that the pillars, central to all three of the plans, “intrude too much on views of the nearby Capitol.” It doesn’t sound like they’re bothered enough to demand drastic changes, but as the project moves into preliminary and final design reviews, we’re sure that at least portions of Gehry’s original vision, however small or large, will wind up being altered in some way to keep the NCPC happy and the view of the Capitol building crystal clear.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

After several months of ridicule by the press and you esteemed members of the internet, Jeff Koons‘ lawyers have backed down and dropped the intellectual property complaints they’d filed back in December against both the San Francisco-based store/gallery Park Life and Canadian manufacturer Imm-Living. To recap, the issue began back in December, when both parties received cease-and-desist letters, telling them to stop making and selling bookends in the shape of a balloon animal dog. Koons’ lawyers argued that the product was much too close to the artist’s famous piece, “Balloon Dog,” a large, shiny, metallic sculpture that has appeared in museums and galleries around the world. The news about the cease-and-desist traveled quickly, very little of taking sides with Koons’ position of intellectual property theft, given the artist’s own history of “borrowing.” Park Life, in particular, kept the story entertaining, recently filing their own, very funny complaint in court against Koons and making statements like “So going forward, just so you know; Jeff Koons owns all likenesses of balloon dogs.” Now it’s apparently all come to an end, as the NY Times reports that both parties received letters from Koons’ lawyers last last week, “saying that it would not pursue the intellectual property claims, as long as Imm-Living didn’t try to tie Mr. Koons to the bookends.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Little example of utility expressed through form. Basically, I just like it.

Architectural photographer Fernando Guerra has sent us his images of a nursing home in Alcácer do Sal, Portugal, by Portuguese studio Aires Mateus Arquitectos.

The façade is reminiscent of a checkerboard, with its white surface punctured at intervals by recesses to shade its glazing.

The long building meanders over the site, rising and falling with the topography of the landscape.

A surrounding landscaped garden reaches up to the roof of at some parts, giving access to the top of the building.

Photographs are by Fernando Guerra.

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Here’s some information from the architects:

ALCÁCER DO SAL FORM

The project is based on a attentive reading of the life of a very specific kind of community, a sort of a micro-society with its own rules.

It is a program, somewhere in between a hotel and a hospital, that seeks to comprehend and reinterpret the combination social/private, answering to the needs of a social life, and at the same time of solitude.

Independents unities aggregate into a unique body, whose design is expressive and clear.

The reduct mobility of those who will live in the building suggests that any displacement should be an emotive and variable experience.

The distance between the independent units is measured and drawn to turn the idea of path into life, and its time into form.

The building, designed path, is a wall that naturally rises from the topography: it limits and defines the open space, organizing the entire plot.

Name of the project: Residências assistidas em Alcácer do Sal. Houses for eldery people in Alcácer do Sal.

Location: Alcácer do Sal (Portugal)

Date of project: 2006-2007

Date of construction: 2008-2010

Brief project description: Authors: Francisco Aires Mateus, Manuel Aires Mateus

Collaborators: Giacomo Brenna, Paola Marini, Anna Bacchetta, Miguel Pereira

Client: Santa Casa da Misericordia de Alcácer do Sal

Engineer: Engitarget, lda

Constructor: Ramos Catarino, Sa

Landscape architecture: ABAP Luis Alçada Batista

Footprint Area: 1560 m2

Floor Gross Area: 3640 m2

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School by Nuno Montenegro M+P Architects	Damier by Apollo Architects & Associates	Casa Areia by Aires Mateus Arquitectos