Frank Gehry ( or better craig webb and claire imatani of gehry partners)
designed the visitors bench for the world company building in tokyo,
japan’s largest fashion house with over 90 labels and 3000+ retail outlets.
the bench was manufactured by tomas osinski design inc., an architect-sculptor
who long worked for gehry.
at tokyo design week 08, design group ‘mile’ from japan presented a chair design made from rubber and wood. the main frame of the chair is made from wood while strips of thick rubber are twisted and curved to form the arms and back support of the chair, all held together by metal hardware. the design provides an interesting combination of materials, using solid wood to contrast with the more malleable rubber.
About Mile
Design project MILE was formed by Bandai Matsuo (acoustic engineer), Kentaro Kai (software engineer) and Kozo Shimoyama (interior designer). As “three heads are better than one†(the Chinese character for MILE can be read as san which also means three), they are expanding their design activities making use of each member’s specialty. Incorporating humor-filled storytelling, they create designs that pleasantly link people, things and space.
for ‘cristaliana’ the brothers used the idea of nests of birds to create a seat with branches interwoven.
craftsmen worked for hours using various wood structures to create this unusual design.
Architect Ben Sato exhibited his multipurpose chair ‘four’ at Design Tide Tokyo, the chair can be used in 4 different configurations by rotating it to the desired side.
Design Tide Tokyo 2008