42 It is raining in a metal box..

We began the new year 2009 post with our old project. :) It is a project waiting in line to be posted already for some months. Just the other stories are more related to the 'now'. However, finally we are very happy to be able to post this one on our blog since we like it very much (as usual).

For the last year Tokyo Designer's Week (during October every year), there was a very small competition to design an exhibition in a container, which was a venue for everyone in a park. The winnners were awarded a free space and a very little budget to realize the exhibition there during Tokyo Designer's Week. Plus a wide range of publicity was guranteed.

We did not aim to win the competition, (and we did not win) but the design condition was challenging for our brains....... Imagine if we won and had to go there to set up everything with very little money... must have been a little hellish...:O (I lived in Tokyo for three and a half years, perhaps I knew too much to be optimistic).






Here is our entry "it is raining in a metal box", upon the requirement - only one A3 sheet.

Our idea is very simple. It comes from the condition that if we really had to go there to set up the exhibition with very little money supported from the organizer. Ok, surely we had to spend the travelling expenses and living expenses from our own pockets.. but then, still, with 60,000 yen in Tokyo, you could barely buy some cardboard to cover the interior space of the container. We, therefore, thought of something very light (as usual) very cheap (as always) and very easy to bring from Bangkok..

This is our starting point - metal paper clips and small piece of magnet. The magnet acts as glue to keep paper clips attached with the surface of the container which is, of course, made of metal.


We did several experiments and finally came up with this hanging paper clips...


They really look like lines of rain dropping..


So we proposed to create the whole space of the container buy this hanging paper clips.. Since they are very light and easy to handle, to shape space in any configuration would be very easy. We can even change the space everyday.


This is what we wrote:

RAINS: Bangkok under heavy rains is Bangkok we love the most.. the rains that pouring down from the sky so heavily that blur all the surrounding into a mystery scene. We want to bring the scene with us.

LIGHT: We come from a place where life is ephemeral, construction is light, tectonic is fragile and space is fluid. We want to creat a short-life environment without leaving any traces of our presence after we are gone.

Our space is created by thousands pieces of a tiny magnet sticked on the metal surface on the container, then a hundred thousands paper clips are chained together and sticked with the magnets.

RECYCLE: The container will not be holed. The magnets are as well as the paper clips can be reused after the event. Since the period of the exhibition is rather short. We want to use the materials that most economical.

EXHIBITION: The raining space withint the container will not only serve as a backdrop for the display of our works, but also conveys our belife in designing built enviroment. Our previous works will be simply shown on small postcards hanging from the paper clip rains.. ready to be taken as an o-miyake. We want you to take them with you.

With some lightings, the space looks pretty mysterious.. and really I think it looks as if it is raining in the box, well, the container.




From outside..

We calculated roughly, the cost of the exhibition would be about 20,000 yen for the materials brought from Bangkok, and then perhaps 10,000 yen more for the lighting.. Not bad in our economic crisis, isn't it.

Well, we surely will try to find a chance to realize this idea very soon.

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13 Andon Ryokan Tokyo

This trip to Tokyo, I stayed at a small, boutique, but very cheap ryokan (in comparison with the money you pay and what you get) : Andon Ryokan.
Situated in a very quiet residential neighborhood, where the real people in Tokyo live, on the East side of the city - two station away from Ueno Station on Subway Hibiya line.
It is designed by Masayuki Irie- Professor of Graduate Architecture Research Department, Science and Engineering, Waseda University and awarded as a selected work of 2005 by Journal of Architecture and Building Science Architectyral Institute of Japan. It is not very fancy building, but everything is thought through.

Usually in a ryokan (a traditional inn) in Japan (those who experienced would know) you have to share a bath, a toilet and so on - for those who are not used to, it is quite strange and inconvenient. If you budget is tight, it is even worse because a cheap ryokan is quite sad, and smelly, not to mention cleanliness.

This one is by far the best I have ever experienced in Japan (after living there several years) within 4,000 yen per night range: modern in design and facilities but still carries some ryokan spirits.
The ryokan even offers you a collections of DVD movies and DVD player in each room.
Moreover, the staffs are friendly and could speak enough English to communicate with guests - quite rare in any ryokan.

The glass facade lit up by night through the windows of those small rooms...







The corridor with the lighting only at the floor where you have to take off and put in your shoes. This confirm my theory about Japanese space that usually it is lit up only at necessary spots to disquise the very tiny size of any room - when you don't see the whole clearly, you don't know how big it is actually.



At the each end of the corridor, there is a window where light get through with some 'Japanese' decorations.





The room is very small (aroud 5 tatami mat), only 1.8 m wide, and 4.5 m. long. But strange enough, you would not feel that so small. Every square centimeter is designed with very careful thought.



To me, the most interesting thing is that although the room is very tiny and really next to each other, you would not hear the noise from your neighbors at all. It must be the super insulation in between the thin partitions of the room that run along the structure.



The small entrance lobby where they serve breakfast upon your request, very pleasant space.





I know, by now you are curious. Here is the website of the ryokan: http://www.andon.co.jp/home/index.html
Enjoy Tokyo!

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12 Chanel in Tokyo

Finally I was back to Tokyo again.
Although this time was not really architectural activity oriented, a lot of new buildings were around.

I was in Ginza, came across to this building which has a digital screen facade.
Chanel Flagship store in Tokyo.
It is quite rare that you see a building with a digital screen facade that does not look stupid or cheesy.
This one, the visual effect is very strong, although the content of the media is rather dull.
(can you imagine that they just play with Chanel logo and Eiefl Tower?)
:O









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02 Toyo Ito: The New Real In Architecture

On the evening of 6 October 2006, Tokyo was completely harrassed by one of the heaviest rains they had in several years. I was at the reception of a solo exhibition of Ito-san 'Toyo Ito: The New Real In Architecture' with Tee (our Narong Othavorn who was on the mission for art4d) at Tokyo Opera City. Very exciting moment. A lot of people I did not see for some years.

This is part A of the exhibition which features mainly the newest and most exciting project of his now, Taichung Opera Hall in Taiwan with the idea of 'Emerging Grid'. (I also wrote a small review on this exhibition and the idea of 'Emerging Grid' in Domus Magazine, December 2006 - www.edidomus.it ). There is a very big model of the building with very cute landscape (transparent trees) - We love Ito-san because of this!
(this image is a courtesy of Tokyo Opera City Gallery, thanks to Yoshida-san)



Looking through the gigantic model of Taichung Opera Hall. What a space!



This is in the model, showing how those functions would be housed in such a building. :O



This is how the super thin concrete slab which will be used in Taichung Opera Hall is constructed. It is a small building just completed in Kakamigahara, Japan. Actually I have seen the same technique he used at the main building of Fukuoka Island City Park, very exciting. This has to be credited to Sasaki-san, the super structural engineer who often works with Ito-san. Look at the wooden mold for the concrete! The Japanese craftmen are really the master on this kind of thing!
(this image is a courtesy of Tokyo Opera City Gallery, thanks to Yoshida-san)



Entering this part, I had to take my shoes off (very Japanese indeed). The glarry white room with curvy terrain showing 6 models of the recent works of Ito-san which are made by the real materials they were built.
(this image is a courtesy of Tokyo Opera City Gallery, thanks to Yoshida-san)



The cuttest thing here is the way you interact with the models: you have to sit in a small hole on the terrain to see the models up close. Very nice.



Wandering in the bleak space, and soft terrain. I was feeling like sitting on the floor all the time. But nobody did so... :( At the end I did not dare to be 'different'.



In this space, we finally met and greeted Ito-san. Looking tired but happy, he was surrounded by zillions people who wanted to congratulate him on this special occasion. Thanks to Kobayashi-san (one of the senior staffs of Ito's office) who brought me cut all the long line of people waiting to see him - being foreigner in Japan sometimes helps. :)



The last space is the chronological display of 35 years of Ito's office. This is really amazing, since he has kept all the records from his first house sketches and diary! Did he know by then that he was going to be so great and people would want to do this kind of exhibition out of his works? Maybe he did....
(Sor told me after seeing the picture of this part that he has to start keeping all sketches we always trash everyday, just in case - in case in the next 35 years we would have to day....!)
(this image is a courtesy of Tokyo Opera City Gallery, thanks to Yoshida-san)


At the entrance, there was a performance of this Italian craftman who makes the Ripple Chair of Ito-san. Very impressive to see it real!

I bought the exhibition catalogue which is done by Akira Suzuki-san. Although some of the images are not at their best quality, it is a very nice catalogue. Also there two other books, very cute. They are books for kids on Ito-san architecture! Love them!

Before heading for dinner with friends and those who are 'ito-san's kids' (they used to work with ito-san, or collaborate with him somehow), i got also some souvineirs for allzone guys....

Rachaporn

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