DESIGNART 2017 - 16-22 October 2017

The inaugural DESIGNART WEEK will be held in various locations around central Tokyo from 16th-22nd October 2017. 

DESIGNART 2017 is a revolutionary new design and art festival in Tokyo which will gather together professionals in design, art, fashion, food, technology and many more fields from around the world.

Combining functionality and beauty, DESIGNART is both the name of and the movement to spread a new concept that seeks to redefine the things that bring emotion to our lives through the everyday. 

A press conference was held at newly opened Trunk Hotel in central Tokyo this week to launch the event to the media and to creatives around the world. 

Mark and Astrid with fellow DESIGNART Founders at the press conference

DESIGNART will be and annual event leading up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics - and beyond!

The opening event for DESIGNART will be a huge 1000+ person PechaKucha Night.

Area: TOKYO - Aoyama / Jingumae / Shibuya /Daikanyama / Roppongi
Website: http://designart.jp/
DESIGNART Committee Chief Manager: Takahiro Ikeda
Founders:
Akio Aoki / MIRU DESIGN
Shun Kawakami / artless
Hiroshi Koike / NON-GRID / IMG SRC
Okisato Nagata / EXS
Astrid Klein / Klein Dytham architecture
Mark Dytham / Klein Dytham architecture

Kumamoto Artpolis HOME-FOR-ALL Hanami and PechaKucha Night

A Kumamoto Castle pose with Kumamoto mascot Kumamon!

On Saturday 1st April we held a Sakura Festival at the Mashikimachi Techno HOME-FOR-ALL in Kumamoto Prefecture.

In 2016, in order to bring some colour and a sense of hope to the residents, Carl Zeiss Company donated seventy cherry blossom trees to the temporary housing complex. The festival was a celebration of this donation for all of the residents and for representatives from Carl Zeiss Company.

Attendees (L-R): Uesumi-san (Kumamoto Prefecture Civil Engineering Department Building Housing Department Architectural Section); Michiko Okano (Okano Building Design); Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham architecture); Astrid Klein (Klein Dytham architecture); Benjamin Dubuisu (Carl Zeiss Co.); Stefan Sacre (Carl Zeiss Co.)

Another special guest was Kumamon, the famous Kumamoto Prefecture mascot! He encouraged everybody at the party to dance...

From the very small...

To the slightly bigger!

Mark Dytham having a hug with Kumamon

Although the cherry blossom trees were not quite in full bloom, there was still some blossom and the residents enjoyed a traditional hanami picnic.

Photographers from PHOTOHOKU, an NPO set up to help replace family photos that have been damaged or lost in tsunamis and earthquakes, wandered around the picnic taking pictures of the temporary housing residents, while everybody enjoyed drinks and cherry blossom cakes. 

Professional photographer Brian Scott Peterson, co-founder of PHOTOHOKU, taking the picture of two residents. The elderly residents were more interested in his old-fashioned, large-format cameras, whilst the younger residents wanted to see the newer models.

After the cherry blossom picnic a special PechaKucha Night event was held at the Kumamoto Artpolis HOME-FOR-ALL. PechaKucha is a presentation format with only 20 slides and the presenter speaks for 20 seconds on each of them. The slides move on automatically so every presenter has exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds to talk.

The PechaKucha Night format was devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in 2003 and is shared and supported by Klein Dytham architecture. There are now PechaKucha Nights in over 980 cities worldwide.

One of the main forces behind PechaKucha is the idea that creativity is not just for architects, designers and artists – it is for everyone. Everyone is full of creativity in their everyday lives and this creativity should be celebrated and shared throughout communities, with everybody having a voice.

At this event the presenters came from diverse backgrounds, from renowned architects to residents of the temporary housing who wanted to speak about how they have personalised their home.

Banzai!

From all of the HOME-FOR-ALL team, a huge thank you to Carl Zeiss Company for their generous donation and another huge thank you to the residents of Mashikimachi Techno HOME-FOR-ALL in Kumamoto Prefecture for being so welcoming and giving us such a great day!

Sushi Shaun

Sushi Shaun being enjoyed at Klein Dytham architecture's Daikanyama T-SITE

Shaun in Shibuya is part of a global project, in collaboration with Aardman Studios, to raise money for children through art. In 2016 thirty unique Shauns were designed by some of Japan’s leading creators, including Sanrio, Jun Ichihara and Ito Yoichi, as well as special Shauns designed by Nick Park and Peter Lord of Aardman studios in the UK.

 Klein Dytham architecture designed Sushi Shaun, to create a humorous and fun take on the world-famous Japanese soul food.

 Sushi Shaun was auctioned off on Sunday March 5th at Daikanyama T-SITE for a whopping ¥420,000! The money will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center and Shibuya City Council of Social Welfare and used for Japanese children.

 http://www.shauninjapan.jp/shauns/index.html

Soma City Home-For-All Children's House wins Fukushima Architecture and Culture Award

Members of the Home For All board, including Toyo Ito, Riken Yamamoto, Yasuhiro Yamashita and Astrid Klein, display the certificate for the 33rd Fukushima Architecture and Culture Award

The Soma City Home-For-All Children's House has been awarded the Excellence Award at the 33rd Fukushima Prefecture Building and Culture Awards! On Thursday 26th January Yukinari Hisayama collected the award on behalf of Klein Dytham architecture who designed the building, in collaboration with Toyo Ito & Associates.

The judges praised the building for being a welcoming space for children. They stated that the warmth of the wood, woven in three layers, has been successful in creating a place for children to play, where their parents can have piece of mind that they are safe. This building is one that will stay in the minds of all of the children who will play here. 

On collecting the award Yukinari Hisayama thanked the judges and everyone involved in bringing this important project to completion. He said, "I hope that this space will continue to be filled with smiles and that local people will always feel that this building is part of their community."

For more information on the Soma City Home-For-All please visit the website: 
http://www.home-for-all.org/soma-city/ 

Design: Klein Dytham architecture in collaboration with Toyo Ito & Associates
Structural Design: Arup Japan
Construction Company: Shelter

The 33rd Fukushima Architecture and Culture Award trophy!

Ginza Place Opens Today!

Our latest project, Ginza Place, opens to the public today. Located on one of the most iconic corners in the world, the Ginza 4-Chome crossing. Klein Dytham architecture in partnership with Taisei Corporation were responsible for the facade design and the overall massing of this new 11 storey building. 

The facade, made from 5315 individual aluminium panels reflects the craftsmanship and quality which is synonymous with Ginza and Japan. The project massing takes its cues from the historic Wako building opposite with it’s clear horizontal banding which allow balconies on the 3rd and 7th floors to have unprecedented views of Ginza, Chuo Dori and Harumi Dori. 

Ginza Place is a gateway to the re-birth of Ginza and has already become a new landmark for Tokyo and Japan ready for the build up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The building is home to Nissan and Sony's new global flagship showrooms and 5 restaurants and cafes.

This project has been 3 years in the making and has been a huge team effort. Thank you to Sapporo Real Estate for selecting us in the competition, Taisei Corporation for your impeccable technical and construction knowledge and Nissan for supporting our design. Last and not least the amazing project team at Klein Dytham architecture.

This is an extremely important building for our office and we feel very honoured to been able to make such addition to the architecture of Tokyo.

It has rained every day for the last 3 weeks so watch out for some sunny blues sky photos soon! Better still drop by and see it soon.

Photography Atsushi Nakamichi @ Nacasa & Partners

PechaKucha X MINI

Join us at our latest building, BMW GROUP Tokyo Bay flagship showroom and brand experience centre, for a guided tour AND a fabulous PechaKucha Night in collaboration with MINI. It should be a night to remember so please SAVE THE DATE - 20TH JULY and and we look forward to seeing you there. Tour the building from 6pm, PechaKucha Night from 7.30pm. The first drink is on us - so best take public transport! Tokyo Teleport Station is only 17 minutes from Shibuya then it's a 7 minute walk. Which makes it quicker to get to than our usual location SuperDeluxe.

More details on our Facebook page http://goo.gl/pHYFzL - and let us know you are going!
Even more information here on PechaKucha Tokyo's site http://goo.gl/zVkmd2

See you all there!

Royal Academy Summer Show

It is a great honour for Klein Dytham architecture to be invited to be a part of this years Royal Academy Summer Show in London. It is the 248th show, held every year since 1768! The show opened on Monday and will run until 21st August. Our Ginza Place facade model and facade print are hung in the Archiercture Galley which this year is jointly curated by Academicians Ian Ritchie and Louisa Hutton. Hope you get a chance to see the show if you are in London.
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/summer-exhibition-2016
Photography Brian Scott Peterson

Gallery TOTO on DEZEEN

Always great to be featured on Dezeen the worlds best design site! Thanks to Marcus, Amy and the whole team there. Check out the full article here http://www.dezeen.com