Hasta La Ideas

Japanese studio Nendo has created a succession of boutiques for New York fashion brand Theory where garments hang from geometric black frames and circulation routes are modelled on road layouts (+ slideshow).

Nendo has so far created a total of nine stores for Theory, including two in California, two in Paris, and others in London, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and Osaka, all based on the same design concept.

Each one has a largely monochrome interior with a layout shaped around the movement of customers through the store, which the designers compare to the flow of traffic on a road system.

“Our idea was to adhere to the brand’s existing combination of simplicity and functionality with New York loft-style materials and a general sense of ease, while adding and emphasising a new concept: the flow of people,” they explained.

Product display tables and partitions have been arranged to clearly divide up the spaces, creating a network of junctions.

Changing rooms occupy generously sized spaces at the rear to encourage shoppers to spend more time trying on items.

“We allotted more space than usual for the dressing rooms and created a buffer zone between the dressing rooms and the shop proper, so that shoppers can take their time trying on clothes and selecting items without thinking about the main flow of people,” said the designers.

The first of the two new California stores is located in Beverly Hills and features a large shop window filled with a grid of mannequins, as well as clean white walls with recessed shelving.

A Los Angeles store occupies a converted warehouse on Melrose Avenue. Brick walls are left exposed and painted white, while steel trusses are visible overhead.

Photography is by Daici Ano.

Here’s a project description from Nendo:

Theory Stores

Shop interiors for theory, the New York-based fashion brand known for basics that fuse functionality with casual trends.

We designed the interiors for two shops in Paris and Los Angeles and one shop each in London, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and Osaka.

Our idea was to adhere to the brand’s existing combination of simplicity and functionality with New York loft-style materials and a general sense of ease, while adding and emphasising a new concept: the flow of people. By coming up with a circulation plan as an urban planner might locate new roads within a city, we made careful provisions for people to flow into the shop naturally and move smoothly around it. For the London shop, we created a ‘boulevard’ that follows on directly from the crosswalk outside the shop.

The Paris shop is located on a corner, so we installed entrances on both outward-facing walls and arranged a softly curving ‘short cut’ between them. We then added ‘plaza’ and ‘park’-like product display stages and lounge corners like to fit with the ‘road system’ in each shop and modulate each space. For the London shop, this meant installing 8.2 m long tables orientated to match the traffic flows within the shop; for the Paris shops, we added a large river delta-like stage that can display more than ten mannequins.

We allotted more space than usual for the dressing rooms and created a buffer zone between the dressing rooms and the shop proper, so that shoppers can take their time trying on clothes and selecting items without thinking about the main flow of people.

Together, these touches allowed us to respond to the different demands placed on the shop space while creating new flows of people that may, we hope, flow out into and colour the city space around the shops, too.

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are modelled on road systems appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese studio Nendo has redesigned the humble chopstick, creating six new versions including one with a profile that looks like a flower (+ slideshow).

Nendo collaborated with a traditional manufacturer of lacquered chopsticks from the town of Obama in Japan’s Fukui Prefecture to produce a range of contemporary designs that provide novel twists on the style, materials and functionality of the ubiquitous product.

“Obama’s lacquered chopsticks have been recognised as the hardest and most beautiful of Japanese lacquer chopsticks since the seventeenth century, when they became known as ‘Wakasa-nuri’,” said the designers.

“We designed new chopsticks in collaboration with Hashikura Matsukan, a manufacturer who continues Obama’s traditional manufacturing techniques today.”

The Hanataba chopsticks feature grooves in the broader end that increase the surface area and improve grip. The grooves create a shape on the end that resembles a flower and can be painted different colours.

The tips of the Jikaoki chopsticks are carved to a thin point so they avoid touching the surface when placed on the table.

Instead of applying pattern to the surface of the chopsticks, the Sukima design creates the shape of playing card suits in a gap between the sticks.

The wood is carved into different shapes that produce the negative form of hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades when the sticks are placed next to each other. An aluminium core is embedded inside the wood to compensate for the weakness created by the carving.

A gap in one side of the square-shaped Kamiai chopsticks enables the two pieces to snap together when not in use.

Magnets placed on the outside of the sticks hold them in place but stop them sticking together while eating.

The traditional udukuri process of carving away the surface of wood with a wire brush to reveal the grain, lacquering them and polishing them again to show the lacquer embedded in the grain was used to create a set of chopsticks with the same name.

A simple twist carved into the end of the Rassen chopsticks, produced using a combination of a computer-controlled milling machine and handcrafted processes, enables the two pieces to slot together as one piece.

All of the designs will be sold exclusively at Seibu departments stores in Japan from spring 2014.

Photography is by Akihiro Yoshida.

Here are some more details about the project from Nendo:

New chopsticks for Hashikura Matsukan who continues traditional manufacturing techniques known as “Wakasa-nuri”

For four centuries, the town of Obama in Fukui Prefecture, Japan, has manufactured lacquered chopsticks. Obama’s lacquered chopsticks have been recognised as the hardest and most beautiful of Japanese lacquer chopsticks since the seventeenth century, when they became known as ‘Wakasa-nuri’. We designed new chopsticks in collaboration with Hashikura Matsukan, a manufacturer who continues Obama’s traditional manufacturing techniques today.

Hanataba

Round chopsticks are slippery to use, but overly square-cornered ones aren’t as comfortable to hold. We explored ways of increasing the surface area of chopsticks in the hand, as a way of improving holding comfort, and discovered the natural form of the pleated cross-section.

When viewed as a cross-section, the chopsticks look like flowers, so a bunch of chopsticks kept together into a cup turns into a ‘bouquet’.

Jikaoki

The firm’s expert artisans carefully carved away the chopsticks’ tips to fine points, so that they float above the tabletop when the chopsticks are laid down for cleanliness, even without chopstick rests.

Sukima

The world is full of patterned chopsticks, so we wondered if it wouldn’t be possible to create pattern in the space between the chopsticks. We came up with four patterns: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. The two chopsticks are carved into different shapes for all patterns but the diamonds, but it’s possible to use one of the diamond chopsticks as the top chopstick with a spade, or the bottom chopstick with a heart, for a total of four different patterns from the four different chopstick pairs.

The carving made the chopsticks so thin that they weren’t strong enough with wood alone, so we embedded a carved aluminum core in the wood to solve the problem.

Kamiai

We put a gap on one of the four sides of the square shaped chopstick,and embedded a magnet, so that the two would snap together in one piece when they are flipped and fitted to each other.

We placed the magnets towards the outside of each chopstick, so that the chopsticks don’t come together accidentally while someone is using them to eat.

Udukuri

We used the udukuri process, in which the wood surface is carved away with a metal brush, leaving only the hard wood grain, then lacquered the chopsticks and polished them again to bring out the wood grain as pattern.

The traditional technique, in which materials clamshells, eggshells and gold leaf are applied with the lacquer then polished away to reveal a pattern is known as ‘togidashi’ (literally ‘to polish and show’), and is particular to Wakasa-nuri. Unlike patterns drawn by hand, this combination of processes allows patterns from nature to appear organically.

Rassen

Chopsticks ordinarily come in pairs, but the rassen chopsticks are a single unit.

They’re separated into two for eating, then rejoined into one form when not in use. We used the artisans’ hand skills and a multi-axis CNC miller to create these unusual chopsticks.

The post Nendo works with traditional manufacturer
to redesign chopsticks appeared first on Dezeen.

Le studio japonais Nendo a réalisé en collaboration avec le chef pâtissier Tsujiguchi Hironobu un superbe coffrets contenant 12 tubes comestibles. Chaque tube de chocolat renferme une liqueur ou une saveur différente, proposant ainsi un objet à la fois raffiné et appétissant. A découvrir en images dans la suite.

Japanese design studio Nendo has come up with a range of transformable accessories for dogs (+ slideshow).

Nendo‘s three-piece Heads or Tails collection consists of a dog bed, dishes and toys, all of which can be used in two ways.

“As a result of looking for a form that could be stable in two different shapes, the collection is constructed of triangular panels connected in polygon mesh,” said the designers.

The artificial leather bed pops up to become a little hut or can simply be used as a cushion.

Ceramic dishes have a larger bowl for water on one side and present a smaller saucer for food when flipped over.

A lightweight silicone toy bone made from a skeleton of triangles can be reshaped into a ball by folding the two ends back on themselves.

The black and white collection was designed for Japanese lifestyle magazine Pen.

Nendo isn’t the only team to have created objects for canines. Japanese designer Kenya Hara rounded up architects and designers including Kengo Kuma, Toyo Ito and Shigeru Ban to create architecture for dogs shown at Design Miami last year.

We recently compiled all the projects we’ve featured by Nendo onto a dedicated Pinterest board.

Photos are by Akihiro Yoshida.

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by Nendo appeared first on Dezeen.

Our new Pinterest board is full of design by Japanese studio Nendo, including a fluffy-looking chair, a range of cutlery that looks as though it’s been carved from flint and a retail interior for shoe brand Camper. See our new Nendo Pinterest board »

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