20 Japanese Architects - Roland Hagenberg

Written by: Michael Keferl on March 27, 2009 at 6:19 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | No Comments

For those of you who love Japanese design, particularly architecture, you can get your fix with an on-site visit or simply stay up-to-date with design fanatic Jean Snow’s blog. For a more inside perspective, CScout friend Roland Hagenberg has just released a new book bringing together years of interviews with legendary Japanese architects about their creations and philosophies of design.

Roland Hagenberg with photographer and artist Nobuyoshi Araki via Die Presse (German only)

Entitled 20 Japanese Architects, the bilingual (English/Chinese) is an expansion of Roland’s previous book 14 Japanese Architects and includes in-depth and thoughtful interviews with architectural visionaries ranging from Jun Aoki to Kengo Kuma. It also features many monochrome photos of the subjects and their works, all taken by Roland as well.

Roland interviews architect Toyo Ito. More in Roland’s YouTube Channel

We worked with Roland last year on the MINIInternational Magazine Kyoto Mash-Up party, for which he produced this video on Kyoto and its intersection of Japan’s ancient traditions with modern design and lifestyle.

Unfortunately, 20 Japanese Architects is only available in Taiwan at the moment, but stay tuned to Roland’s Angry Cactus Store for more of his works and future releases.

Tags: Architecture, design
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Suntory Midorie brings green to cities inside and out

Written by: Rebecca Milner on March 24, 2009 at 10:26 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | 3 Comments

We just talked about some close-to-urban (pretty close, anyway) agriculture going on with Tokyo Milk, but there’s a lot going on in Japan from grass-covered vending machines to, well, grass covered cities. If you’re interested in some personal agriculture, the Green Capsule does all this on the ultimate micro scale. What if we really want a green city? Maybe not as green as this building in Fukuoka, but at least something the breathes a little.

Beverage company Suntory has been working on a project, Suntory Midorie, aimed at bringing more green into Japan’s urban areas, inside and out. To this effect, the company has developed original systems for roof top gardens (“Midori no Yane,” or “green roof”) and wall-side foliage (“Hana no Kabe,” or “flower wall”). These systems draw on a technology developed by Suntory that replaces natural soil with a new synthetic kind, called “pafcal,” that is purportedly light, promotes growth, and requires little maintenance.

Both Midori no Yane and Hana no Kabe were officially launched on March 3rd in the Tokyo and Kansai area (Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe cities). Suntory had already put up a few Hana no Kabe in their Tokyo headquarters and in Café Solare, located in the Suntory Museum in Osaka. We’ve also spotted one for promotional purposes, branded with the tag Suntory Midorie, at the entrance to Shibuya’s Center Gai shopping street (pictured below).

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Shibuya, a trendy teen retail area, get a dose of green. Last season’s Tokyo Girls Collection publicized the launch of the Shibuya +1 no Mori (Shibuya +1’s forest) project, symbolized by the planting of three trees outside of Shibuya station. The Shibuya + 1 no Mori campaign was created in collaboration with the NPO Gaia Initiative.

Trend Potential
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Tags: Architecture, Eco, Suntory
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Fake robot among this year’s Good Design Award winners

Written by: Rebecca Milner on October 25, 2008 at 2:21 am | In DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION | No Comments

Last week the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization announced the winners of this year’s Good Design Award. The 51-year-old award actually consistently gives due props to some really cool stuff, some of which are already hit items and some of which will be now. The judging committee, made up of a couple dozen designers, journalists, architects, and marketers, also showed a sense of humor by awarding Zarigani Works’ Korejanai Robo a prize this year.

Korejanai Robo translates literally to “not this robot” and is created as an ode to all those kids who once really wanted something, like say a toy robot, and got something decidedly less high-tech, like another He-Man action figure. As the name suggests, the Korejanai Robo is not really a robot, but rather a hand-made looking wooden robot doll. The cult item, which has received many devoted odes of its own on the web, became a USB drive (naturally) last year.

In an excellent nod to irony, Takara Tomy’s i-Sobot, which also landed a 2007 Guinness World Record for being the smallest two-legged walking robot, received a grand prize.

Other top prize winners included the Muji Window House, a prefabricated house that allows the owners to choose freely where windows will be placed, and a do-it-yourself Japanese room Sakamoto Urushi Manufacturing, that fits nicely in your existing dwelling.

Meanwhile the ThermoRender-3 Pro, an architect design tool from A and A Co. that simulates outdoor thermal environments and includes functions for calculating a structure’s potential energy consumption, and the FCX Clarity zero-emissions car from Honda earned top marks for environmental impact.

The Lessev Mobile Station and Tokyo Traffic Control Center we covered on these pages also got a mention. To browse the complete list of GDA winners, see the archive search page here.

Tags: Architecture, Automobiles, design, Environment, Good Design Award, Home, Honda, Muji, robots, Takara Tomy, Toys
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

MINIInternational Magazine Kyoto Mash-Up party

Written by: Michael Keferl on June 9, 2008 at 12:28 pm | In MARKETING IDEAS | 2 Comments

Last weekend CScout Japan teamed up with MINI Japan, Kreative Konzeption, and Metropolis to help put on the Kyoto Mash-Up party at hip event space Sfera, celebrating the latest edition of MINIInternational Magazine.

The stars of the party, of course, were the stars of the magazine, which focused on Kyoto’s booming art/design/music scene. Music was provided by acclaimed Kyoto-based DJ Halfby and DJ Nic Jagger who flew in from Germany for the event.

You’ll have to pick up your own copy to get the full experience, but MINIInternational magazine features a broad cross-section of modern Kyoto from traditional architect Katsumi Yasuda to director Kazushige Togo, and SOUSOU footwear designer Takeshi Wakabayashi. This isn’t the typical “outsider looking in” view of Kyoto, but was written by experts who were either born in Kyoto, or have adopted it as a second home.

Thus far there’s been great coverage of the party/magazine, from press, featured artists, and attendees (See 1, 2, 3, 4) to MINI dealers here.

Stunning papercraft was on display from Eriko Horiki, a featured MINI
International artist.

Kudos to MINI Japan for their support, and Kreative Konzeption and Metropolis for putting together an amazing event with a top-notch guest list. Special thanks to Roland Hagenberg, Yoshihito Sasaguchi, and Yasuyuki Sodeoka for putting together an amazing magazine with their deep expertise on Kyoto.

Of course, many thanks to the artists and guests that came to celebrate together, as well as all of the caterers, Sfera staff and management, and all others involved in making this project a success.

It’s amazing how many people go into making a single party, but we had a great time, and hope everyone else did as well.

To sum up, here’s some more DJ Halfby for your listening pleasure.

Tags: Architecture, Art, Automotive, design, Mini, music, Parties, Press
Category: MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS