Hasta La Ideas

Stockholm 2014: design duo Färg & Blanche created this furniture collection by sewing pieces of plywood together (+ slideshow).

Färg & Blanche used a heavy-duty sewing machine more commonly used for making car seats to stitch together sections of plywood.

“No one had ever tried using such a hard material on the machine,” Emma Marga Blanche told Dezeen.

After discovering that it was possible to sew the wood together, the pair experimented with different thicknesses and densities to push the limits of the machine.

“It was really exciting to find that this actually worked,” said Blanche. “We went thicker and thicker with the wood, so the ideas kept coming and developing.”

The first item they created in the Wood Tailoring range was the Pocket Cupboard, a modular storage system with leather pockets attached onto the front of the doors.

“Sewing is so heavily associated with the fashion industry but we like to think we’re tailoring each of these pieces to create Haute Couture furniture,” said Fredrik Färg.

Wood contours that get darker as they become smaller form the back of the Wood Layer Armchair, which arcs around a leather seat.

The pieces of the smaller Bespoke Chair are steamed to bend them before stitching, while the armchair is sewn flat and then glued into its curved shape.

Färg & Blanche also sewed a large freestanding cupboard from a dark grey insulation material, with a topographical motif on the sides similar to the back of the armchair.

Färg & Blanche are a Swedish and French duo who worked independently before combining their efforts and setting up their own studio in Stockholm four years ago.

In 2011 they curated the 20 designers at Biologiska exhibition, where designers’ work was presented among stuffed animals and dried plants.

The products were debuted at Färg & Blanche’s studio last night and are currently on show at the Stockholm Furniture Fair and Northern Light Fair, which commences today and runs until 8 February as part of Stockholm Design Week.

Here’s some more information from the designers:

Wood Tailoring

Fredrik Färg and Emma Marga Blanche’s latest innovation Wood Tailoring will be presented at the Stockholm Furniture Fair for the first time. Sewing technology is taken to its extreme with a thoroughly researched craftsmanship.

“We have tried extreme sewing technology the past years,” says Fredrik and Emma jointly, “not at least in the Emma armchair for Gärsnäs where the stitch was part of the construction. Now we have gone even further by reducing everything, only a shell of wood with the sewing as pattern generator and a structural element.”

Wood Tailoring employs sewing machine to stitch directly on to the wood in order to join different parts together while at the same time creating patterns which has an aesthetic of their own. Layer on layer of thick plywood is stitched together to make the Wood Layer Armchair, and where the sewing presents a topographical map with an organic pattern that resembles the growth of wood.

“Sewing is usually seen as something, which has to do with soft materials. We use our heavy-duty sewing machines to sew in wood. And, yes, it’s a raw poetry that fuses the hand-made with the industrial.”

Wood Tailoring is a new technology, which explores radical new possibilities in the joining of parts in furniture. The first products are the Wood Layer Armchair, the Bespoke Chair and the Pocket Cupboard, all to be presented at the Stockholm Furniture Fair.

The post Färg & Blanche stitch wood
together to form furniture appeared first on Dezeen.

A bulky concrete apartment appears to hover above the glass roof of a patisserie at this combined home and workplace in Chiba Prefecture by Japanese studio Yuko Nagayama & Associates (+ slideshow).

Yoko Nayagama & Associates designed Katsutadai House to accommodate both the home and business of a family, but wanted the different functions to appear as two separate entities.

To achieve this, the architects recessed the middle floor of the three-storey building, creating a large void between the patisserie and the living and dining room of the apartment above.

They then added a glass roof over the patisserie and a window in the floor of the living room, allowing light to enter the building and letting residents peer down to catch a glimpse of the activities taking place below.

“During the daytime it will be a lightwell for a patisserie, and at night time the lights leaking from this aperture make it look like a treasure box has been opened,” explained the studio.

While the upper level has a windowless facade of exposed concrete, the walls of the patisserie have been rendered white to create a marbled effect.

Wooden doors slide back to invite customers inside the shop. A serving counter runs along the back wall of the space, while a kitchen and food preparation area are tucked away at the back.

A separate staircase leads up to the residence above, where a master bedroom and bathroom comprise the small first floor. The childrens’ room and extra bathroom are located above.

Photography is by Daici Ano.

Yuko Nagayama & Associates sent us this project description:

Katsutadai House

A dwelling with shop at Katsutadai, Chiba prefecture, Japan. The outer part of 1st floor is a patisserie and the inner part is a cuisine, 2nd and 3rd floor is a dwelling for a family of four people. This house has an aerial wedge in between 1st and 3rd floor, so that the upper part of dwelling is looks like floating above a patisserie as a view on street.

This aerial wedge will be changing its character as the photic layer with different times – during the daytime it will be a light-well for a patisserie, and the nighttime the lights leaking from this aperture look like a treasure box is opened. And we can see a sole of dwelling volume in a patisserie based on its transparent glass roof. The wall of shop along the street is planned to 1.8 metres height and it is gradually being higher toward the inside. That is based on our intention to create a familiar open space like an empty-lot where is just surrounded by low wall.

This house has an inter-observing relationship between a shop and a floating dwelling space that makes different independent existence in a single building simultaneously. Each space has a particular sense of distance to the surrounding environment.

A shop space is a kind of continuous exterior with the street scape where is only surrounded by low wall. And a dwelling space is more separated form the surroundings where is floating above the street and has non-openings along the street, so that dwellers cannot see other houses directly and vice versa.

Additionally, we put a kind of wind-path in a dwelling part that brings the wind and the sounds form the outside to the inside space, and then dwellers can be feel an atmosphere of the street. When we went their previous house for the first time (1st floor was a shop and 2nd floor was a dwelling), a curtain is closed due to concerning about the eyes from street, and they also troubled with the noise of their child’s footstep form upstairs to patisserie. Therefore, we also attempted a solution of those problems in the schematic design.

The approach is planed to have an attractive appearance with long length to change the mood between a shop and a dwelling. We intended to change a sense of distance to the surroundings with the situations – such as high public patisserie space and more independent dwelling space, and those senses of distance change the flow of time between the spaces in their life.

Architect: Yuko Nagayama & Associates/Yuko Nagayama, Yohei Kawashima
Location: Katsutadai,Yachiyo, Chiba, Japan
Function: dwelling with shop
Site area: 100 metres squared
Architectural area: 79.9 metres squared
Total floor area: 178.5 sqm
Structure: steel
Year: 2013

The post Yuko Nagayama floats an apartment
above a patisserie in Japan appeared first on Dezeen.

The latest project to complete in Toyo Ito‘s Home For All community rebuilding initiative is this timber and concrete pavilion in a Japanese fishing village, designed by Kazuyo Sejima‘s protégé Yang Zhao (+ slideshow).

Home For All in Kesennuma is the ninth building in the Home For All project, which was initiated by Japanese architect Toyo Ito just days after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, and involves the construction of new community buildings in the worst-hit areas.

Under the supervision of SANAA principal Kazuyo Sejima, Japanese Chinese architect Yang Zhao designed his building for the coastline of the Kesennuma fishing community in north-west Japan, creating a structure that can be used as a market hall, a meeting place or a performance area.

“It’s a shelter in which fishermen can take a rest, a place where the wives would wait for their husbands to return with the catch and sometimes a marketplace,” explained Zhao.

The structure was built with a hexagonal plan. Concrete walls support a large pitched roof and also frame a trio of wooden platforms that accommodate different activities.

The first platform accommodates a kitchen and can be enclosed behind sliding glass doors. The second is based on the engawa, a traditional Japanese veranda, while the third includes both toilet facilities and a seating area.

A multi-purpose space at the centre of the pavilion is exposed to the elements and features a timber-lined ceiling punctured by a large triangular skylight.

“At night, the building glows warmly from within, like a lighthouse, waiting for fishermen to come back from the sea,” said Zhao.

The floor inside the pavilion is set at the same level as the surrounding pavement so that forklift trucks can drive into the building on market days.

Photography is by Jonathan Leijonhufvud, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s more information from Yang Zhao:

Home For All in Kesennuma

The home-for-all in Kesennuma is designed and built as a gathering space for a fishing community that severely suffered from the Tsunami in 2011. It is located at Kesennuma’s Oya fishing harbour that serves as a centre for the local fishing activities and community life. It’s a shelter in which fishermen can take a rest, a place where the wives would wait for their husbands to return with the catch and sometimes a marketplace.

Most part of the space opens to the exterior. A roof, supported by 3 “rooms”, covers an area of 117 square metres. At the centre is a triangular-shaped hole in the ceiling that allows people to gaze directly at the sky. The “rooms” with lifted benches are oriented toward the centre and, at the same time, towards views of the surrounding landscape through the three entrances from different sides. The kitchen room is glazed by glass sliding doors and can be slide open in pleasant weathers. The room nearest to the water can be enjoyed as an engawa (a space underneath the eaves, an important space for Japanese architecture and daily life). The toilets are accessed and ventilated from the outside, while oriented towards the centre and the sky through the slanted glazing. The surrounding ground will be paved to the same level as the space inside, allowing forklifts to enter in market hours.

The elemental geometry of the roof creates a dome-like space underneath. Together with the plywood (Japanese cypress) materiality, it generates a warm and protective atmosphere. At the same time, the transparency of the supporting structure creates an open and welcoming character. At night, the building glows warmly from within, like a lighthouse, waiting for fishermen to come back from the sea.

The project was the collaboration between architect Yang Zhao and his mentor Kazuyo Sejima during the 6th cycle of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Art Initiative. The architects had three workshops with the local community to discuss about the design and get their approval to build. The completion and transfer ceremony took place on Oct. 27, 2013. The photos were taken on the ceremony day.

Architect: Yang Zhao
Advisor: Kazuyo Sejima
Local Architect: Masanori Watase
Design team: Ruofan Chen, Zhou Wu
Structural engineering: Hideaki Hamada
Site supervision: Takezou Murakoshi

Client: People of Ohya district in Kesennuma-city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan
Site area: 419.21m2
Built area or Total floor area: 93.45m2
Cost: 10,0000 euros
Design phase: Dec 2012 – Jun 2013
Construction phase: Jul 2013 – Oct 2013

Roof: galvanised steel sheet
Ceiling: plywood + protective coating
Exterior wall: concrete + protective coating
Interior wall: concrete + protective coating

The post Yang Zhao completes fishermen’s pavilion for
Toyo Ito’s post-tsunami reconstruction project appeared first on Dezeen.

Stockholm 2014: this collection of wooden furniture by Japanese designer Jin Kuramoto is built using traditional techniques derived from shipbuilding (+ slideshow).

Pieces in Jin Kuramoto‘s Nadia range for his new brand Matsuso T are constructed using a particular interlocking technique known as kumiki.

“The heritage of many of the woodworking techniques used by Japanese carpenters originates from Japanese shipwrights,” said Jin Kuramoto.

“Inherent in its position as an island nation, it is unsurprising that the maritime industry has been a driving force behind the innovation of wood construction for centuries.”

Curved sections of wood form grids for the chair backs, which flow into supports for the thinly padded seats. The chairs come in natural wood or bright red.

Frames of interlocked struts cross beneath the coloured table tops to support the surfaces. Rounded legs splay outward from where they join the under frames, nestled into the corners where the beams meet.

The circular tables have three legs and rectangular designs are supported on four.

Coat stands are created using three poles with branch-like offshoots at the top that fix onto each other to make the structure sturdy. These are available in a set of light colours.

The collection will be unveiled at the Stockholm Furniture and Lighting Fair, which opens tomorrow as part of Stockholm Design Week.

Matsuso T is also launching a range of pentagonal wooden furniture designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune.

Photographs are by Takumi Ota.

The post Nadia furniture by Jin Kuramoto made using
Japanese shipbuilding techniques appeared first on Dezeen.

This house in the Bavarian countryside by local office SoHo Architektur has a kinked facade that provides different views from the living spaces and a pitched roof that references vernacular farm buildings (+ slideshow).

SoHo Architektur designed the family home for a sloping site on the edge of the small village of Landsberg and arranged the rooms so the living spaces have the best views, while a basement buried into the hill houses the entrance and a study.

“The main idea with this house was to manage the site to make the most of the views,” architect Alexander Nägele told Dezeen. “We organised the levels so from the living room you can see the Bavarian Alps in the south and the Lech river in the north.”

The building’s irregular facade features folds in the front and back, with windows looking out at difference aspects of the surrounding countryside.

When viewed from the access road at the end of the driveway the house appears to have a simple section with a pitched roof, which is intended to resemble typical local barns.

“We didn’t make many design decisions with this facade,” explained Nägele. “There are a lot of farm houses here that have the same facade and we just altered the size.”

The exterior is clad in vertical wooden planks that have been painted black to match the colour of the vernacular buildings nearby.

By burying the basement floor in the side of the hill, the architects were able to make the most of the building’s footprint while complying with local height regulations.

A pathway leads past the garage at basement level to a sheltered courtyard and the house’s main entrance.

A short staircase ascends from the courtyard to the garden which surrounds the building and can also be accessed from the ground floor at the rear of the property.

Concrete walls at the basement level continue up the stairs that lead to the large open plan kitchen, dining and living space, which features a fireplace built into an angular concrete wall.

The first floor contains the bedrooms and features warmer materials, including wooden boards lining the staircase and covering the floors.

Photography is by Zooey Braun.

The architects sent us this brief project description:

s_DenK

Being located at the hillside in a small Bavarian village the lot opens to the Alps in the South and the valley of the river Lech. By placing garage and house on different height levels it was possible to keep the original composition with a huge garden nearly untouched.

The access path bridges the height levels alongside the garage and opens up to a sheltered courtyard with gravel flooring. Entrances to house and office are located on this base level.

Some steps form a short cut to the garden. The next level houses the living area with huge South facing windows, featuring the view to the village and further on to the Alps, and an even opening to the garden in the North.

Narrow wooden stairs lead to the private rooms under the roof. The typical coloured and textured facade is a harmonious reference to the local context of the building.

The post s_DenK house by SoHo Architektur
has a kinked facade appeared first on Dezeen.