Hasta La Ideas

Milan 2011: this chair made from polyurethane film is part of a collection of transparent furniture by Japanese designers Nendo, on show in Milan this week.

Other pieces in the series include an acrylic table top cast from deep-grained wood and a lamp shade made from a clear film that diffuses light when seen straight-on.

The collection is on show at Galleria Antonia Jannone, 125 Corso Garibaldi, Milan 20121 from 12-16 April.

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Photographs are by Masayuki Hayashi.

The following details are from Nendo:

Solo exhibition “texured transparencies” in Milan

4 new pieces will be exhibited at Galleria Jannone

Textured transparencies collection

Our furniture collection explored transparency, but with a difference: not transparency that seeks only to disappear visually, but the half-transparency that exists in gradations in the space between the transparent and the opaque, and the minute differences visible between different levels of transparency.

Transparent-chair

A chair made with polyurethane film, a transparent film commonly used as a packing material for precision instruments and products susceptible to vibrations and shock, thanks to its high elasticity and ability to return to its original state.

All pieces explored transparency’s infinite nuances, but were constructed from different materials, pointing to the possibility of new functionalities and visual effect

Looking at the chair, it seems to consist of nothing but a backrest and armrests. It wraps and supports the body like a hammock, providing a light, floating feeling for the sitter.

Transparent table

We cast clear acrylic in a wooden form with a strong grain and assembled the resulting pieces to create a table made of ‘transparent wood’. We reproduced the butt ends faithfully and bevelled the edges like floorboards, and matched the grains ends and dimensions of the wood used for the table legs to the ‘transparent wood’ to create a unified piece.

The two tables have specific and different optical effects: at first glance the black table is wood, but a closer look reveals its transparency, while the clear table is the transparent at first glance, and only later reveals its wooden form.

Transparent-lamp

Today, we’re blessed with a variety of sight-protective films for window glass and smart phone screens that prevent unwelcome peeks from neighbours.

Our pendant lamp uses a type of protective film that is semi-transparent when viewed directly, and transparent when viewed at an angle.

We placed the light source at the centre of the ring of film, creating a lampshade that might be transparent, but mutes the light emitting from its centre through the layer of half-transparency regardless of the angle from which it is viewed.

The light hits the film at a right angle, creating the effect of soft light spilling into the space of the room as it passes through the transparent lampshade.

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Bamboo-steel chair by Nendo	Thin Black Lines by Nendo	Wire-chair by Nendo

Japanese designers Nendo present new work at Art Stage gallery in Singapore this month.

Called Dancing Squares, the show will include a bookshelf, lamp, stool and table, each made up of distorted or tumbling squares.

The exhibition runs 13-16 January 2011.

More about Nendo on Dezeen »

Photographs are by Masayuki Hayashi.

The information that follows is from Nendo:

Nendo will show solo exhibitions “dancing squares” at Art Stage in Singapore, 13th – 16th January

“dancing squares”

We assembled square to create a sense of motion in this series of objects.

One part of the bookshelf is frozen in its cascade of tumbling planes, creating variety in the way books can be stacked.

The stool’s twist endows it with visual play.

Lamps roll about but are stable, thank to their planes, and cast light in different directions.

The table leans as though falling away, but maintains its function as a table, and makes objects placed on it seem to sink into its folds and sways.

The different ‘movements’make balance and unbalance overlap, as though we are watching the planes themselves dance.

EVENT: “No Boundary” at Art Stage
Address: Basement 2, Hall D at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

OPEN: January 13th – 16th / 11:30-19:00
Admission Free

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Pyggy Bank by Nendo	Thin Black Lines by Nendo	Collar and Hexagon by Nendo

Tokyo 2010: Japanese studio Nendo have created these bottle-shaped piggy banks with two coin slots that mimic a pig’s snout. 

Called Pyggy Bank, the designs were created for an exhibition called Piggy Bank Collection, which will remain on show until 9 November at Isetan department store in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.

The show is part of DesignTide Tokyo 2010, which continues until 3 November 2010.

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Here’s more information from Nendo:

Unravelling the history of the piggy bank, we learn that the name dates back to medieval Europe, when unused coins were saved in household jars made of unglazed reddish clay, or ‘pygg’.

A play on words from ‘pygg’ to ‘pig’ led to the piggy bank, and the familiar porcine objects we know today. The pyggy-bank takes this history as its design concept.

Offering savers a pig-snouted bottle and jar made of unglazed fired clay in which to place their hard-earned coins, it exists somewhere between ‘pygg’ and the ‘pig’.

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Thin Black Lines by Nendo	International Triennale of Kogei by Nendo	24 ISSEY MIYAKE Shop by Nendo

Japanese designers Nendo have completed the interior of a mental health clinic in Akasaka, Tokyo, where none of the doors open and patients and staff instead move around the building by opening sections of the walls. (more…)

An exhibition of new work by Japanese designers Nendo is on show at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. (more…)