Here’s a sneak preview of our latest design, the new Ernst & Young TAS office. The rest of the office should be ready by the end of the year. More pictures (with furniture) to follow…
E&Y TAS
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Self-made objects
Self-made objects is a site with projects by Roger Ibars. Roger studied Interaction Design and displays a fantastic sort of homour in re-manufacturing everyday objects using joysticks as a control unit.
"He illustrated this research by publishing the book "Self-made objects", a collection of daily objects that experience their functions. These objects investigate a new area for interaction design where things take control of their functions and therefore use themselves. The user, left behind from this interaction, can only interact witn the objects with empathy."
Great website, beautifully designed.
Shed Working
I uploaded some pictures at we love sheds which was picked up by Shedworking. Amazing to see that there are blogs devoted not only to sheds but also to working in them. It seems that Mahler wrote most of his compositions in sheds.
Other famous shedworkers include Mark Twain, Dylan Thomas, Roald Dahl, Arthur Miller and Peter Gabriel. Peter Gabriel has teamed up with Solid State Logic to create studio sheds for those who want a shed like Gabriel instead of creating their own. Here you can watch why Peter Gabriel likes working in a shed.
Building naming
When we were expecting our first baby I bought a book called 10,001 baby names. For most high rise buildings here in Tokyo the owners (or whoever stick a name to the building) seem to have a list of 5 or 6 words that they then add the location of the building.
The words are:
Garden
Hill(s)
Park
Tower
City
Throw these words in a pot and you get:
Park Axis Aoyama 1-chome Tower
How very unoriginal. The list could go on for ever it seems. 4-5 story buildings are called Towers, and grey concrete buildings called Park or Garden.
Interestingly enough, sometimes a building is called after a location where it is not even build on.
Bureau of interruptions
Bored at the office? Join the bureau of interruptions to create a bit of colour in your office life, as they will:
"harness interruptive technology to expose the secret possibilities of the workday… Our promise is to create interruptions that challenge the needs of our users and the social and economic conditions of the modern workplace… we create surprise, the kind that slices through the banal and opens up new places for your mind to wander… In short, we hope to invigorate some of the time you spend at work in order to create new experiences and possibilities outside the flow of capital."
VDAJ Advertisement
We have started advertising in the NKK (Dutch Circle in Japan). There will be a series of 4 ads and this is one of them: 
Office party
The office opening party was a great success. Thanks for all who visited us, the flowers, the champagne, the wine, the tulip bulbs and all the presents we received! Thanks also to all the VDAJ staff working tirelessly: pouring drinks, serving food and preparing for weeks for this. Pictures below. (We started taking pictures late and forgot taking more during the evening, so these are only brief snapshots) The music playlist you can be found here 
The idea
Each design should have a conceptual idea at its basis. Obviously this idea should supersede the design, not the other way around. The problem of design then really becomes what to when the design needs change that is fundamental to the concept of the design. Should the concept then be changed as well? This, I believe is a critical point in every architect’s career. This came to my mind when I saw the revisions to the Shanghai World Financial Centre. The Tower designed by KPF and later by Leslie Robertson and the main feature of the tower is obviously the opening at the top. It started with a circle (1), which was then crossed with a bridge (2) and is now a square (3). A project that starts with one architect and then has another architect take over is not easy, and to me the concept of the design has suffered visibly. The square just looks very weak.
When I worked for Hiroshi Hara on the Umeda Sky Tower, the concept was to design towers connected in the top. This concept lost most of its potential as the initial concept: connecting four towers, lost its design strength when first one than another of the initial 4 towers were abandoned. The third tower, the Westin Hotel, was even under construction when the owners decided to build their own (ugly little beige) tower. Hara’s concept was losing force but he somehow managed to keep his initial idea in the connection of the two remaining towers. (although one can imagine that four towers would have been spectacular). For Hara the idea of connecting multiple towers expressed in his drawings is equally important as the constructed building itself. He called this “the prospect of the world”. The creation of a possibility of architecture.
Dutch
How many times did I have (and will have) to explain here in Japan that that Holland (North and South) are provinces in the Netherlands, that Dutch is not Deutsch, that we don’t sell heroin in school cafeteria’s and how about the wisdom below?
. Double Dutch= speaking inscrutable gibberish,
. Dutch comfort= cold comfort,
. Dutch concert= pandemonium,
. Dutch courage= the courage of drink,
. Dutch crossing= crossing the street slant wise,
. Dutch treat= each pays for their own expenses,
. Going Dutch= sharing the bill,
. Dutch fuck= lighting a cigarette with another,
. Dutch Uncle= someone who criticises or rebukes you with the frankness of a relative,
. Dutch Metal=� an alloy of copper and zinc used as a substitute for gold foil,
. Dutch widow =prostitute,
. Dutch wife =inflatable love doll,
Ah! The joys of living abroad.
Banksy
I wrote about Banksy in my previous mail. I bought a print before prices went through the roof. Banksy is best known for his graffiti, and art stunts such as some "modified art" that he placed in museums, or his work on West Bank Barrier. Although I was never fond of graffiti, Banksy’s in your face kind of humour is fantastic.
