The new LAMY noto ball–point pen, designed by Naoto Fukasawa, takes the writing tool back to its essence—his goal was to make a ball–point pen, period. No further pretentions. It is that untamed japanese minimalism what gives the noto its modern purity. It comes in light-grey (above), light-blue, orange, black and silver/black (after break), and according to the press release LAMY sent me the product will be sold at a recommended price of €3.90 (roughly US$7)—such a product can only come from a designer whose philosophy traces back to the very values that triggered the modernist movement: “good taste and first class design do not have to be expensive”. More images/colors after the break Continue reading »
Located at only 2 hours [drive] from downtown Tokyo and surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side and beautiful mountains on the others, the house is a natural retreat designed by architect Kiyonobu Nakagame. More images after the break.
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Tadao Ando (Ando Tadao, born September 13, 1941 in Osaka, Japan) is a Japanese architect whose approach to architecture is sometimes categorised as Critical Regionalism. Ando has led a storied life, working as a truck driver and boxer prior to settling on the profession of architecture, despite never having taken formal training in the field.
He works primarily in exposed cast-in-place concrete and is renowned for an exemplary craftsmanship which invokes a Japanese sense of materiality, junction and spatial narrative through the pared aesthetics of international modernism.
Image gallery after the break— Continue reading »