Craft x Tech Returns to the V&A with Six New Tokai Artisan Collaborations.Craft x Tech's Tokai Project lands at the V&A this London Design Festival, pairing six artisans from Japan's Tokai region with six designers from around the world. David Caon's collaboration with Gifu ceramicist Yohei Ito, Fushi, sits...
Shinji: A Toronto Steakhouse Built on Denim, Indigo Limewash & Restraint.Odami's Shinji is a Japanese steakhouse in Toronto's Financial District that reaches for cultural identity through material and atmosphere rather than motif—starting, unexpectedly, with...
Ivy Studio Drops a Lesson in Japanese Restraint into a Raw Concrete Shell in Downtown Montreal.Occupying the ground floor of a Montreal's downtown high-rise, Minnibar by Ivy Studio is a restaurant and café that pairs a contemporary Italian menu with the atmospheric principles of Japanese minimalism. Concrete floor, columns and...
A Permanent Sunset Crowns Plutarco’s Myo Hand Roll Bar in Madrid.Golden hour never ends at MYO. In Madrid's ChamberĂ, Plutarco have engineered a permanent sunset—a warm, backlit glow that crowns the bar and refuses to fade. Raised on an oak platform and finished in nori-green stained wood, the bar is...
Strutt Studios Reworks Black Blaze’s Paddington Flagship as a Study in Restraint.Six years into its Paddington home, Australian fragrance brand Black Blaze asked Strutt Studios to deepen its flagship rather than reinvent it. The 36-square-metre store trades spectacle for restraint: warm timber joinery, cork-clad walls,...
Ceramic Tiles, Izakaya Bars & Onsen Energy: Valencia Workspace Transformed Through the Lens of Tokyo.At 21 Sornells Street in Valencia's Ruzafa neighbourhood, Paloma Bau and T.O.T Studio have transformed a former commercial unit into a 170sqm shared workspace. The collaboration developed organically—T.O.T's speculative creative...
Build Less, Build Better: Modernist Restraint and Japanese Design in North London.Not every renovation needs to get bigger to get better. Studio Hagen Hall's Heion House in Islington proves that the most considered move is sometimes the one you don't make. By working entirely within the original footprint of a Grade-II...
Nice Projects Turns a Historic Kyoto Teahouse Into a Cutting-Edge Research Lab.Nice Projects have transformed a historic teahouse in Kyoto's Gojo district into the Artificial Life Institute—a 145 square metre research lab for scientists exploring the intersection of science and art. The London and Sydney-based...
What do Family Restaurants and Workplace Design Have in Common? More Than You’d Think.When Kokuyo commissioned DDAA to design a workplace centred on learning, the Tokyo studio faced a key insight: you can't manufacture curiosity. Their solution drew from Japanese family restaurants—those 24-hour establishments where...
