Hasta La Ideas

Product news: Japanese studio Nendo has made this range of drinking vessels and wine bottle holders in the same way as pails and barrels (+ slideshow).

Nendo worked with traditional Japanese barrel maker Nakagawa Mokkougei, using wooden bucket-making techniques to create smaller versions for the Oke collection.

The range includes a tumbler, drinking cup, shot glass, sake cup and sake pitcher.

Nendo altered the silhouette of the buckets, which normally have straight edges. “We added a slight curve at the base to create a soft feel both visually and in the hand,” the studio said.

The lighter-coloured pieces are crafted from Japanese cypress and darker items are made out of Jindai cedar, a rare wood removed from the ground after being buried for 2000 years.

Both woods are treated with urethane to prevent warping caused by sunlight, dirt and moisture.

One metal hoop rather than the usual two is used to bind the wooden slats. The hoop is sandblasted for a matte finish.

The slats forming the larger Uneven-Oke Bucket are different heights so a bottle neck can rest against them. It has two hoops instead of one so it looks distinctly barrel-like.

All designs will be available from Seibu department stores in Japan from 22 October.

Nendo has also designed a collection of office furniture that is screwed together with a coin rather than tools and a chair inspired by the spike heels on a pair of stilettos. See more design by Nendo »

Photos are by Akihiro Yoshida.

Here are some more details from Nendo:

Oke Cup, Oke Carafe, Uneven-Oke Bucket

Nakagawa Mokkougei is a traditional Japanese cooper whose pails, buckets and other wooden items have long been beloved of exclusive Kyoto inns and restaurants. We designed a collection of drinking items – a tumbler, guinomi drinking cup, shot glass, sake cup and sake pitcher – that utilise the same barrel-making skills and techniques. Somewhat unconventionally, we decided to bind the wooden slats with one hoop, rather than the usual two. We made the walls thicker than usual and created nearly imperceptible spaces between the slats, a new construction that disperses the stress around the structure.

Using only one hoop makes for a clean look, and the thicker wood has a strong, comforting feel against the lips when lifted to the mouth. We also played with the cups’ silhouette. The walls of Japanese wooden buckets ordinarily lie straight. We added a slight curve at the base to create a soft feel both visually and in the hand.

To soften the hoop’s metallic gleam, we sandblasted it to a matte texture then coloured it with a powdered paint, developing another new technique. The pieces are made from a combination of Japanese cypress (hinoki), the traditional material for buckets, and Jindai Cedar, a rare, darker wood uncovered from having been buried in the earth for more than 2000 years.

We treated both woods with urethane to keep warping from ultraviolet rays, dirt and moisture to a minimum. A collection that combines old and new techniques to bring out the best in its materials. All the items will be sold at Seibu department stores in Japan exclusively from 22 October.

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by Nendo appeared first on Dezeen.

Complex wooden lattices provide a stage set for archery competitions and boxing matches at this pair of university buildings in Tokyo by Japanese studio FT Architects (+ slideshow).

Located on the campus of Tokyo’s Kogakuin University, the two structures are both dedicated to sporting activities and called for column-free spaces built from low-cost materials.

Katsuya Fukushima and Hiroko Tominaga of FT Architects used locally sourced timber for the construction of both buildings.

They said: “We have salvaged the purity of traditional Japanese timber composition, simply made up of horizontals and verticals, which has been somewhat disregarded ever since the advent of modernism in Japan.”

“Small timber sections, normally reserved for furniture making, were chosen for the archery hall, and timber members deemed defected because of insect damage, for the boxing club,” they added.

A simple bolt-and-nut assembly was used for both frameworks, but required meticulous accuracy to ensure that each grid is made up of only perpendicular elements.

Other projects by Tokyo studio FT Architects include a house pierced by eight concrete columns.

Another sports centre recently completed in Japan features an exposed timber frame and huge clerestory windows.

See more sports centres »
See more architecture in Japan »

Photography is by Shigeo Ogawa.

Here’s some more information from FT Architects:

Archery Hall and Boxing Club, Kogakuin University, Tokyo

Structure & Space – medium-span, column-free

The project consists of two buildings, an archery hall and a boxing club, standing a few hundred metres apart on the grounds of Kogakuin University in west Tokyo.

The formal rituals of Kyudo (Japanese archery) and the very physical nature of boxing may appear worlds apart. However, surprisingly, the two built facilities share a number of commonalities.

The University’s brief was for low-cost structures made of locally sourced timber to provide accessible and inspiring spaces for the students. By chance, both facilities called for a column-free space of 7.2m by 10.8m, a size that is comparable to a sacred hall in a traditional Japanese temple. In order to achieve this span, without columns and using low-cost methods of timber construction, it was necessary to come up with an innovative timber solution. We began the project by investigating a number of structural forms that would be appropriate for each sport.

Underlying Principles

Through collaborative exploration with timber experts, from researchers, manufacturers to suppliers, we derived at timber materials that are not commonly associated with structural or architectural usage. Small timber sections, normally reserved for furniture making, were chosen for the archery hall, and timber members deemed defected because of insect damage, for the boxing club.

We have salvaged the purity of traditional Japanese timber composition, simply made up of horizontals and verticals, which has been somewhat disregarded ever since the advent of modernism in Japan. Delicate lattice frame composed of slender ties beams and posts for the archery hall, and a bolder, stepped frame, was employed for the boxing club. Here, timber, a historical material, has been reanalysed and transformed into a new building material.

Contrast/Complement

The two structures have been constructed employing a simple, lo-tech method of bolt-and-nut assembly. However, due to the scale of the space and simplicity of construction, the execution had to be meticulous, in order to produce spaces that are out of the ordinary.

For each building, the main subject is the 7.2m x 10.8m space and the timber structure, merely its backdrop. The powerful presence of the timber structure emphasises the stark transparency of the void below. The whole is only achieved by the juxtaposition of these two contrasting and complementing qualities.

Departing from the same starting point, the two buildings have arrived at a shared architectural theme via two different structural and spatial solutions.

Completion: 2013
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Principal use: archery hall (Japanese archery=Kyudo) and boxing club
Total floor area: archery hall 106.00 sqm, boxing club 92.75 sqm
Structure: wood
Architect: FT Architects/Katsuya Fukushima, Hiroko Tominaga

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by FT Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Perimeter skylights throw light across a grid of exposed wooden ceiling beams inside our second house this week from Japanese studio mA-style Architects (+ slideshow).

Positioned in a shady location between two neighbouring buildings in Aichi, Japan, the wooden house couldn’t have many windows, so mA-style Architects added skylights around each side of the flat roof.

Daylight disperses itself through the interior by bouncing off both the ceiling beams and the laminated wooden walls.

“The design intended to create a space with uniformly distributed light by adjusting the way of letting daylight in and the way of directing the light,” said the architects.

Bedrooms and storage spaces are contained within two-storey boxes scattered through the interior. Rectangular openings lead into the spaces, plus those at first-floor are accessed using wooden ladders.

“Considering each box as a house, the empty spaces in between can be seen as paths of plazas and remind us of a small town enclosed in light,” the architects added.

A bathroom, a study space, bookshelves and a kitchen with steel surfaces line the perimeter of the open-plan space.

White-painted wooden panels clad the exterior of the rectilinear structure, including a sliding door that gives the house a corner entrance.

Led by partners Atsushi and Mayumi Kawamoto, mA-style Architects has also completed a house with small attic spaces tucked into the triangular roof and an elevated house that points out like a giant rectangular telescope.

See more architecture by mA-style Architects »
See more Japanese houses »

Photography is by Kai Nakamura.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Light Walls House

The site is in a shady location where a two-story neighbouring house closely stands on the south side, and even the shade and shadow on the path intensify the impression of darkness.

Therefore, the design intended to create a space with uniformly distributed light by adjusting the way of letting daylight in, and the way of directing the light.

By taking into consideration the space for the residents, the functions for living, and the relationship with the surrounding environment, creation of a diversity and richness in the house was intended by controlling the concept of light.

Along the edges of the 9.1m square roof, sky lights are made, as if creating an outline, in order to provide sunlight.

The roof beams narrow the sunlight, and the slightly angled clapboard interior walls with laminated wood reflect and diffuse the light.

As a result, soft and uniformly distributed light is created and surrounds the entire space.

Along the outline of lighting, work spaces such as a kitchen, bathroom, and study are arranged. Private spaces such as bedrooms and storage are allocated into four boxes.

The path-like spaces created between them are public spaces. Each box attempts to balance within a large spatial volume.

Light coupled with the rhythm of scale raises the possibilities of the living space for the residents.

Considering each box as a house, the empty spaces in between can be seen as paths or plazas, and remind us of a small town enclosed in light.

The empty spaces, which cause shortening or elongating of distances between people, are intermediate spaces for the residents, as well as intermediate spaces that are connected to the outside when the corridor is open, and these are the image of a social structure that includes a variety of individuals.

In terms of a natural component, in which light is softened by small manipulations, and of a social component, in which a town is created in the house, this house turned out to be a courtyard house of light where new values are discovered.

The post Light Walls House by
mA-style Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Long wooden panels give a shed-like aesthetic to the walls and cabinets of this apartment in A Coruña, Spain, by Sinaldaba Estudio de Arquitectura.

Spanish studio Sinaldaba Estudio de Arquitectura adapted the narrow, confined layout of the apartment to create a single, open-plan living space at one end and a bedroom at the other.

Working with a limited budget, the architects used recycled materials to construct partitions between rooms, as well as to build worktops and cabinets for the kitchen.

White tiles were stripped from the kitchen worktop and replaced with a stainless steel surface and sink.

Rugged stone walls were painted white, as were the timber floorboards and ceiling beams. Architect Ignacio Reigada describes this as a “necessary luminosity” that results in “a neutral volume – white, bright [and] airy”.

An entrance corridor, bathroom and small study space separate the bedroom from the living and dining area.

Bare lightbulbs and recycled furniture complete the interior. “The furniture is all recycled. We saw it in other apartments of this building, that still aren’t restored, so we decided to include it in the project,” added Reigada.

Other Spanish apartments we’ve featured include a seaside home with an all-white interior and an apartment with mosaic floors and a decorative ceiling. See more Spanish architecture and design »

Photography is by Abraham Viqueira.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

A Coruña

A top floor in a late nineteenth century building, located one of the central streets of A Coruña, in conditions very unfavourable maintenance, on a shoestring budget but with total freedom and trust from the client to choose the solutions, have us believe appropriate.

The house has the classic spatial configuration of a Gothic story plot: elongated, narrow, narrow, multi confined spaces? Is that what we all wanted? Quite the opposite. We proposed to completely empty the floor early on, keeping only the main stairwell. We got a single space, open, broad, bounded by a strip that houses furniture-kitchen-toilet-cabinet-study, i.e. a longitudinal continuous section running along the floor and containing all needs, freeing the volume and providing a spatial and visual continuity to housing.

The solutions adopted for the realisation of the idea happen to be fully reversible. We basically reinforced all beams that needed it with metallic elements, fir wood is used for the longitudinal strip and to repair the core of stairs. Both the stone walls and floors and ceilings are painted white, providing a necessary luminosity, as it is also the cheapest option. The result is a neutral volume, white, bright, airy, acting as a container for a small wooden box for communications and other longitudinal collecting the necessary elements to inhabit.

The post A Coruña by Sinaldaba
Estudio de Arquitectura appeared first on Dezeen.

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