Hasta La Ideas

Japanese architects Maker have completed a Hiroshima restaurant where timber slats on the ceiling descend around the dining tables. 

These vertical batons create privacy screens between tables and corridors at the Kurogane restaurant.

Hanging fabric creates additional screens between individual tables.

Maker also recently completed a hair salon with untreated timber booths and gauze partitions – see our earlier story here.

Photography is by Shigeki Orita.

Here are a few words from Maker:

Kurogane by Maker

Noncommittally, three-dimensionally, ‘Kurogane’, the restaurant of Hiroshima-styled teppan-yaki(dishes on a hot plate), is on the second floor of the building in the city area of Hiroshima.

The owner had wanted to make a restaurant of teppan-yaki familiar with women. We designed the clean natural space with wood based on her wish.

The most characteristic part is wooden louvers. These are used for partitions and the ceiling, and cover the inside of the restaurant.

Their layer and shade make us feel depth and a cubic effect.

Passing an entrance, there is the inside space directed by warming lightings and louvers.

louvered partitions vaguely divide seats and a service lead.

Because of them, visitors can observe visitor’s appearances through them, and give fine quickly service.

Louvers play functional and ornamental role and give a feel of unification.

This design is simple but three-dimensionally, and this restaurant makes good mood pursuing of distance between visitors and staffs.

See also:

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Tree Restaurant by Koichi Takada Architects	Tang Palace by FCJZ	Rosa’s by Gundry & Ducker

From September 28th to 2nd of October, İstanbul will again attract
design fans from all over the world, hosting it’s one and only İs..

Stone Designs è un piccolo studio di progettazione spagnolo che scovai a Madrid il gennaio scorso. In questi giorni ho ritrovato la foto della loro vetrina e ho deciso di dedicargli un articolo. La vetrina dello studio, già, perché il suo aspetto fantasioso ed informale non passa inosservato e lascia intendere come si tratti dell’ambiente di lavoro di qualche creativo.
Il portfolio di Stone Designs si divide nelle categorie product e interior design ed è caratterizzato da alcuni temi che ho trovato ricorrenti, seppur evoluti, in diversi progetti.
Uno di questi temi è unire le caratteristiche di due oggetti distinti per ottenere qualcosa di nuovo, come è stato fatto per i Guerilla Containers: grandi cuscini che avvolgono un contenitore in legno rendendo possibile usi diversi e la creazione di arredi insoliti e divertenti.

Sullo stesso tema mi è piaciuta questa radiosveglia, il cui piano superiore può essere usato come portaoggetti. La realizzazione avrebbe potuto essere anche più sofisticata ma l’idea di mischiare i materiali a seconda dell’uso è una bella intuizione.

Un progetto per Muji che consiglio di vedere questo tavolo “espositivo” formato da contenitori di dimensioni diverse che nascondono i prodotti al di sotto del piano.

Una delle fonti di ispirazione per Stone Designs è spesso il legame con il mondo della natura, come è evidente nel caso di questi i tavolini concentrici Drops. Sempre sullo stesso tema è stata disegnata una variegata serie di orologi da polso.

Lo studio ha lavorato spesso per RS Barcellona con buoni risultati perché c’è sintonia con lo stile dell’azienda: colorato, simpatico ed informale. Tra i tanti arredi segnalo la libreria By Yourshelf, composta da moduli inclinati che astutamente fingono l’ortogonalità. La leggera rotazione aiuta a tenere i libri in ordine e caratterizza l’oggetto, che può considerarsi un’evoluzione meglio riuscita della libreria Equilibrio, nata nel 1998.

Concludo con la panca On The Road; fissare l’imbottitura alla struttura tramite un evidente elastico rosso è una idea ben riuscita, ripetuta con successo anche in altri progetti di sedute.

“Ordinary Carbon Bike” made of carbon strands dipped in epoxy, by Tjeerd Veenhoven

The fourth stop on a year-long traveling tour, Connecting Concepts is an ambitious exhibition exploring sustainable creative networks through the lens of craft, design, national identity, technology and ecological impact. After a tour through India (stopping in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bangalore) and picking up projects on the way, the thirty objects on display survey work from as early as the ’80s and are interdisciplinary in nature— but there is a powerful story told when shown as a collection. In it’s Beijing iteration, Connecting Concepts has added two Chinese projects—work from the graphic design studio To Meet You and an online pop-up shop hosted at Tao Bao and curated by the Guangzhou-based arts space Vitamin. We take a look at three of our favorite pieces from the show.

To Meet You is Guang Yu and Liu Zhizhi, a Beijing-based graphic design duo known for their unexpected design solutions for clients including Adidas, Dior, Vogue, Coca Cola and the artist Ai Wei Wei. The studio is pioneering a new language for Chinese design that is not linked to a specific aesthetic, but rather draws its unique strength from the process of mixing icons of everyday life and modes of expression within the larger framework of contemporary graphic design.

Layouts for Vision Magazine

Identity for Mao

Identity for Shenzhen Biennial

Layout and design for Boundless

Identity for CIGE Beijing

(more…)

Situated on the grounds of a former power plant, 751 D-Park has become a center for Beijing’s design scene housing interior designers, furniture showrooms and fashion firms. The area has recently been reclaimed after the rise of the neighboring 798 Arts Zone elevated the surrounding area as a destination for art-lovers.

During this inaugural Beijing Design Week, the dramatic industrial backdrop will host a range of exhibition work from local and international designers. With a mix of everything from student work to more established designers, 751 D-Park will be a hive of design-related activity with pop-up book stores, Pecha Kucha discussions and hosted talks scheduled throughout the week. Below are some highlights from the exhibitions.

751-D Park
Building A, No 4.
Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District
Beijing

“Urban Body” – Structure built out of repurposed shipping palates from the students of Tsinghua University and Ecolre Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.

Lucite Table from Zhou Qi Yue. On view at Open Studio: Beijing Design

Explorations in plastics from Song Tao (O Gallery). On view at open Studio: Beijing Design

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