Young Japanese designer Shizuka Tatsuno has designed an upholstered bench that can be converted into a chaise longue or an armchair and side table.

Designed for single-occupant living, Modular Bench can be reconfigured by moving upholstered elements that slot into holes in the base.

Tatsuno exhibited the bench at 100% Design Tokyo in November.

Here's some text from the designer:

--

Shizuka Tatsuno is a product and furniture designer who moved to the UK in 2005 and graduated with the first class honor from the product and furniture course in Kingston University London in 2008. She exhibited in New Designers Exhibition, Tent London and 100% Design Tokyo Prototype in 2008 and is currently based in Tokyo.

Products revealing quality from using over time

Modular Bench is a modular seating unit for a live-alone. The bench can be changed to an arm chair with a small table, and a couch by sticking the arms and back in different holes and transforming the cushion.

The post Modular Bench by Shizuka Tatsuno appeared first on Dezeen.

UK designer Michael Sodeau and Japanese company Suikosha have produced a stationery range called Anything.

Manufactured in black, white, orange and yellow, the stationery range includes scissors, a stapler, tape dispenser, geometry equipment, alarm clock and set of erasers.

The collection was exhibited at Design Tide in Tokyo last November.

The following information is from Suikosha:

--

ANYTHING is a collaboration between UK designer Michael Sodeau and Japanese company Suikosha.

Together they have produced their first collection of products, which sees its international debut in London.

Two years in development, and the first phase of an ongoing project shows the collaborators' vision of practical and functional stationery design.

Further additions are planned for the stationery collection after which they plan to specialise in... ANYTHING.

The post Anything by Michael Sodeau and Suikosha appeared first on Dezeen.

Icelandic designer Róshildur Jónsdóttir has designed a toy construction kit that uses fish bones as components.

The kit includes discarded fish bones, glue and paint.

Róshildur presented the project, called Something Fishy, at 100% Design Tokyo in November.

Here's some text from Jónsdóttir:

--

Something Fishy

Something fishy is a model making kit for adults and children where a creative imagination is the key. You can glue the fishbones together in any way you imagine and create anything from angels to spaceships, monsters and goblins. I find the best way to create a figure is to pick up one bone and look at it from every angle and before you know it you will see an image, for example an elephants head an angels wing or a monsters foot. You will then find it quite easy to find the rest of the bones which will finalize your imagined creature.!

I created this product when I had been researching the use of Icelandic animal products in design through the ages. My ancestors used to use every part of the animal for food, clothing, household items, farming tools, toys and even building material. Each of these products took a lot of imagination, time and nurturing and was thus used to the fullest and even passed from generation to generation.

We now throw away tonns of bones, hides, horns and other side products of fish and meat. Today most of our everyday imported objects have very little sentimental value to us and in general we have way too many of these items. This is very true of toys, most of which are plastic imitations of everyday items which leave very little to the child's imagination or creativity. This means that they don't appreciate each toy for very long and we buy even more.

As soon as we create our own things which take time and nurturing we immediately feel differently about them. We don't throw them in a box with all the other goods, we display them and feel proud of them. I hope I have created something which will help us to remember that we can create our own products from local materials and that we might be happier with fewer but better objects in our lives. Lets not forget our creative side.

The post Something Fishy by Róshildur Jónsdóttir appeared first on Dezeen.

More from Isolation Unit: this vase is sliced into layers than can be rotated and rearranged.

Shifting Vase, available in granite and marble, was launched at Design Tide in Tokyo last month.

Photos are by Takumi Ota.

Here's some info from Isolation Unit:

--

An archetypical shape, sliced into individual segments, that can be shifted or rearranged.

This might cause surprise because we expect that the water inside will seep out: In reality, the vase will continue to keep you flowers fresh and bright.

The design shows with simple means how much we trust our experience and perception to be true.

A vase that plays with our experience and perception and interacts with the nature of the flowers.

SHIFTING VASE is crafted of solid black granite or white marble by an artisan in Kagawa prefecture. It is first shaped as a whole and then sliced into five individual segments with identical height.

The segments can be stacked and assembled freely in order to fit your favoured flowers. The water is contained only in the bottommost part in the manner of ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement.

The post Shifting Vase by Isolation Unit appeared first on Dezeen.

Another winner from our Dezeen x Design Association container design competition - KT: the listening room by designers MAT Studio and Elastik.

The 20 foot shipping container was filled with CNC-cut layers of corrugated fiberboard and compressed-polyester foam panels, which cut out noise and vibration from the outside while the occupant listened to classical music.

Fifteen speakers were oriented towards the visitor's seat in order to create what the designers hoped would be a "spatial sensation that is in-between the notion of the concert hall and the I-pod headphone."

The installation was visited by about 4000 people over five days during Tokyo Designers Week.

See the other winning designs in our previous stories here and here.

The following information is from MAT and Elastik:

--

KT: the listening room is an installation specifically designed for the Tokyo Designers Week 2008.

When the Design Association of Japan together with Dezeen picked MAT and Elastik as one of the winners of a competition connected to 100% Design Tokyo, MAT and Elastik were able to transform some ideas they were working on into a custom made container-installation. When the Australian Creative Director Lou Weis invited MAT and Elastik to translate his work into a spatial design, he had already been working on an installation dealing with Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder for some time.

The resulting combination of these combined efforts: “KT: the listening room”, takes a number of the basic ingredients of the large scale installation and morphs it into a material system for a design event.

KT: the listening room attempts to create a personal audio experience in a secluded and private space in the turmoil of a high-profile design event in the heart of Tokyo.

Whilst maintaining the premise of the Kindertotenlieder cycle as a contemplative pivot for the installation, KT: the listening room integrates several other elements that make this piece attach itself to some key values specific to Tokyo urban culture. The sense of confinement to a small space. The idea of separateness in a multitude of others. The option of self chosen isolation. The ostensive layeredness of the urban fabric. The necessity to occasionally flee the chaos.

The design challenges can be narrowed down to two basic questions: how to instrumentalise a listening room within a 20 foot shipping container? How can acoustic substance inform material organization and vice versa?

Corrugated fiberboard panels and compressed polyester foam panels, that have been CNC sliced, are systematically clustered to form a circle of speakers, all focally oriented towards the listener’s sofa.

The material and acoustic design are intertwined into a whole, where principles of the soundproofing, reflectivity, rigidity and channeling of the reverberation are taken into account. The listening position of a KT container visitor is sound-wise isolating while keeping the visual connection with the outside uninterrupted.
In the KT: the listening room the distinctions between acoustic, structural and ornamental fade into a singular integrated personal space.

“Listening is believing”
There are two conditions of the listening importance of this project. The first one is the establishment of an experience as if one would jump into - and be wrapped by the nucleus of sound cell. The second one is the spatial sensation that is in-between the notion of the concert hall and the I-pod headphone.
Concert hall has a raw yet refined and live-performed sound while headphone has the individually adjusted sound that one can occupy.

By combining the two almost contradicting listening experiences - KT: the listening room enables people to inhabit the sound space of an audio event which absolutely differs from the everyday domestic experience. KT: the listening room allows the people to switch on and off the daily/non-daily event. It can be expressed with the following key markers: non-daily experience, petit-event, habitable audio.

After about 4000 individual visits in five days of 100% Design Tokyo, KT: the listening room container will be shipped to Europe, where future developments and public presentations will take place. The very first, the current prototypical version of a listening room, will be further developed.

Design: MAT Studio and Elastik
Concept: Joy Ride Enterprises
Accoustic Design: Derek Thompson (Arup Melbourne)
Co-production: Joy Ride Enterprises, MAT Studio, Elastik and Dechnology
Photo: Keibun Miyamoto
Special thanks to: Masatsugu Kitamura, Majelle Wams, Yasuyuki Sakuma, Hideo Terui, Tatsuya Ishiwara, Tsutomu Nogawa, Kaori Ishiwara, Tomoko Taniguchi, Ayako Kumabe, Takeshi Mukai, Eiki Watanabe, Kayoko Watanabe

Source: competition, 2008
Client: mixed
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Facts: 20 ft container converted into a listening frame
Structure: corrugated fiberboard and compressed polystyrene
Sponsors: the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Tokyo, Japan, Marantz Consumer Marketing Co.,Ltd, B&W (Bowers and Wilkins), Prime21 Co.,Ltd (MultiCut-Tonbo), Daiichi Foam Co.,Ltd, Rengo Co.,Ltd, Doi Kougei Co.,Ltd, CIA Inc., The Brand Architect Group

The post KT: the listening room by MAT Studio and Elastik appeared first on Dezeen.