Hasta La Ideas

Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka will present a reflective glass table for Italian design brand Glas Italia in Milan next month.

Yoshioka‘s Prism Mirror Table for Glas Italia uses a high-transparency mirrored glass that covers the surfaces of the table to reflect its surroundings.

“This piece will be a table like a shimmering sculpture reflecting the view of surroundings,” said Yoshioka. The table is made up of a long rectangular top with bevelled edges, with mirrored blocks for legs.

The panels of glass were cut in a way that allows the edges of the table to refract light like a prism.

Yoshioka is known for his use of reflective and transparent materials including chairs grown from crystals and furniture that’s almost invisible. The table follows on from Tokujin Yoshioka’s Prism mirrors for Glas Italia last year. The new piece will be shown at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile from 8 to 13 April.

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for Glas Italia in Milan appeared first on Dezeen.

Mineral crystals grown on thin threads form the shape of a chair in this installation by Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka.

Tokujin Yoshioka created the Spider’s Thread sculpture of a chair by suspending just seven filaments within a frame that was sat in a pool of mineral solution.

The solution was drawn up the threads and gradually formed into crystals around them, fleshing out into the shape of a piece of furniture.

The project is a development of Yoshioka’s earlier Venus chair, where crystals were grown on a sponge-like substrate.

“Spider’s Thread applies the structure of natural crystals in an advanced way aiming to produce a form even closer to the natural form,” said Yoshioka.

The designer says this iteration references a traditional story by Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa. “The Buddha takes a thread of a spider in Heaven and lowers it down to Hell so that the criminal can climb up from Hell to Paradise,” explains Yoshioka. “In the story, the thread of a spider is a symbol of slight hope and fragility.”

The piece is on show as part of a solo exhibition called Tokujin Yoshioka_Crystallize at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo until 19 Janueary 2014.

There are three crystal chairs in the exhibition to show the different stages of growth.

Yoshioka is known for his barely-there designs, and past work includes transparent plastic furniture that resembles cut-crystal glasses, a watch with a see-through strap and a tank of flying feathers.

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Tokujin Yoshioka appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: tables in this collection by Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka have tops that appear to balance precariously on angled stands (+ slideshow).

Rather than standing upright, the oblong supports are tilted so one bevelled corner touches the base while the tops of the Element tables teeter on another corner at the opposite end.

Manufactured by Italian furniture brand Desalto, the metal furniture inspired by crystal structures has been developed from experiments and research Yoshioka conducted when creating his Venus chair that he grew from crystals in 2008.

Most models in this collection have a single stave, but larger tables have two crossing supports for added stability and stands for taller side tables consist of one bar on top of another.

The range includes side tables, desks and dining tables, all of which come in black.

Desalto will exhibit the tables in Milan next month, at the same time as Zaha Hadid will present limited edition marble tables and twisted auditorium seats, and Ross Lovegrove will unveil a concept car for Renault.

Yoshioka revealed a table that’s almost invisible in Milan last year, having been announced as Creator of the Year at Maison&Objet a few months prior to that.

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for Desalto appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Watch Store: O, a watch by Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka for fashion band Issey Miyake, is now available at Dezeen Watch Store and at our Dezeen Space pop-up from tomorrow. 

O consists of a mirrored watch face embedded in a transparent grey plastic bangle.

Yoshioka designed the watch to appear as though sculpted from water.

The clear plastic bracelet reveals the wearer’s wrist as well as reflecting their surroundings, like the play of light on liquid.

The name of the watch comes from the French word ‘eau,’ meaning ‘water’ and pronounced “O”.

Other Issey Miyake watches on Dezeen Watch Store include VUE by Yves Behar, Trapezoid AL by Naoto Fukasawa and Hu by Ross Lovegrove.

Dezeen Watch Store is a carefully curated online store specialising in watches by named designers and boutique brands.

Go to Dezeen Watch Store »

Here are some more details from manufacturers Seiko Instruments:

“O”, produced by ISSEY MIYAKE and developed by Seiko Instruments Inc., was launched at the Basel World in Switzerland in March of 2011 in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the ISSEY MIYAKE watch project.

“O” is designed, aiming to go back to the origin of the watch.

It is as if sculpted from water, and creates the scenery which only the time itself embraces the wrist of the wearer.

The smooth curvature of the transparent bangle leads our eyes to the mirror finish body, which reflects the scenes of the surroundings, and gradually blends into the environment as if disappearing the form of itself.

Using the transparent special plastic material, “O” opens up a new direction in watch design with non-definitive form like water, which is as if freed from the concept of the materialism.

www.dezeenwatchstore.com

See also:

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Hu by Ross Lovegrove	Vue by Yves Behar	Trapezoid AL by Naoto Fukasawa

Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka will present a series of clear acrylic furniture for Italian brand Kartell in Milan next week.

Called The Invisibles Light, the project is a thinned-down development of the Invisibles series of furniture that Yoshioka presented last year (see our earlier story).

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The following information is from Kartell:

Tokujin Yoshioka x Kartell
The Invisibles Light−Disappearing into the air
2011

In 2010, the exhibition “The Invisibles” was taken place at Kartell Gallery.

The series of chairs and tables, “The Invisibles,” was presented in the event. They were an exceptionally experimental pieces made out of the transparent blocks of acrylic.

The poetic, yet dynamical presences reveal the essence of the pieces, and leave a mysterious scenery. “The Invisibles” goes beyond the concept of the products, and holds the quality as an art piece.

This year, 2011, I am presenting “The Invisibles Light”.

“The Invisibles Light” is as if hiding its appearance to escape from this material world. It melts into people’s daily lives like the air.

See also:

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Snowflake by Tokujin Yoshioka for Kartell	The Invisibles by Tokujin Yoshioka for Kartell	The Snow by Tokujin Yoshioka