Arihiro Miyake is immediately available nonetheless being the star of his busy schedule, from his collaboration with Moooi, the interior design project with the Finnish shop in Japan, and the Japanese furniture design for Finnish structures, to a Professorship at the Helsinki University of Art and Design and the Interior Architect of Japan and Finland Association, revealing a bold sense of irony, letting himself be drawn into a “Dadaist” interview, where apparently freedom of words open up unexpected conceptual worlds.
I ask him what’s behind an aesthetic which loves synthesis and which leads minimalism to form. Works which always leave one with a deep breath, which show a deep assessment of the laws of physics, a balance between full and empty and where the line that divides represents a “meanwhile in between” two places wherever they may be, as in Fort (acoustic system partitions) designing a physical divider of spaces, and whether they represent the metallic and tubular lines that makes up the string chair (where the empty parts in between the strings conjure up an air passage, letting the replenishment of colour be given at the end of the room where the chair is placed).
Smiling, we come to this acronym:
A.S.A. x WHY= 3 explanations of the reasons why behind the creations.
Sure enough this is not about a unit of measurement, but summarizes 3 basic characteristics, around which Miyake’s research is developed.
So let ourselves go on with this game:
A. for AL DENTE
Design becomes such when the design is finished in an instant defining it’s completion from its planning without removing or adding anything.
The culinary similarity is with Pasta in Italian cooking which has to be served cooked perfectly, finishing its course on the table. Arihiro sees design works, completed by being used by their final user, who establishes how and where they will be used.
A sort of Playfulness, where toys are not only such in that they are objects/gadgets, but overall they exist because one has fun with them.
Italian cookery, sustains it’s similar to that of Japanese because both traditions give their attention to the quality of the ingredients, real, natural, fresh, and mixed with care to be able to perceive the single flavours. Freshness is the spokesperson for the will to “Bite life” if it is true that man is what he eats (Feuerbach). This should be able to find its own dimension in design
S. for SERENDIPITY
Walpole is responsible for the concept which Arihiro refers to.
It is about the talent of “finding out” something of important value, accidentally, while researching something else. The intuitions to tie up things apparently uninfluenced, instead which lead you to the basis of a new discovery.
As our designer explains, how important it is to try to keep our minds free from structure which could easily blind our intuition and therefore stiffen our intellect.
Often a type of interior brain storming, free from judgement and cultural categories allows us to hover over fantasies and evoke moments, from which simple remembered episodes become new planning experiences.
That’s the case with FORT’s planning, a dividing wall for offices.
Arihiro says “it started with sketches on sketches, but none of them made me happy…a few weeks earlier I had been visiting a PET material recycling factory, eco-compatible, mainly being used for the production of sound-proofing panels for cars…thinking, I found myself looking at a PEZ sweet packet on my work table. They’re a small packet of little white bricks that I used to devour when I was small, and I found them a few days before in a supermarket in the area. In opening the packet up the sweets rolled onto my drawing table and I began playing with them to created forms. My thoughts went back to my childhood, to games, fishing and the thoughtlessness which that image stirred in me. In a second I was back to the dividing system. I had the idea to make a series of white, eco-PET, stackable blocks, that could serve as dividing and acoustic panels for offices, but which could be disassembled and a new formed wall could be made. In an instant the idea of my childhood made me aware that it was possible to construct FORT in this way, making a symbol of industrialisation merge into my childhood, designing while being open to childish thoughtlessness: to design the future”.
A. for A WAY TO THE FUTURE
Design as an expression of ourselves? Even if a touch of narcissism makes up a part of the personality of designers, Miyake underlines how this statement has tired him out. It’s not hidden that ambition lies in being able to make something never made before, and that this element also exists in his research.
The wearing study instead should be placed, sustained, making a dream come to life, based on the functional requirements, material sustainability, usability and technology. The asthetics that shape a way of life, projecting into our near future. Underlined how the big discoveries do not just come from progress, but overall from minds capable of perceiving ahead of time BIG IDEAS.
For this design must position itself as the step towards the future and not give up at the aesthetic self-liking.
We can catch a sight of these principles in some of Miyake’s designs, that have all their differences a precise “why”:
FORT
A division panel for a new office concept where the divisions between the management rooms and those of the other staff members should not seem hierarchical.
An open-space, where the spaces can be modified depending on the FORT panels, as described before, are PET (100% biodegradable) modular blocks, held together by simple magnets, where the height, form and size can be modified.
Conference area, waiting room, design studio, offices, can be replaced inside the same space depending on ones needs.
BON VOYAGE
It takes us towards the fulfilment of a new working method, the stylised chair with incorporated work arm/table, to be used in public spaces and areas used as temporary conference halls. Ergonomic and allowing the possibility to easily use a laptop pc on the chair’s side, keeping both comfort and the elegance of the design.
BALLERINA Set of 10 floor lamps designed for the making of a Baekerei made in Helsinky, in Japan.
Their form, nearly a human transfiguration, is made up of two essential cylindrical-rounded pieces, one on top of the other. Small white rings, flat and luminescent create a type of mosaic all the way around itself, 30’s style, to give off a cold and clean light like a reverberation of morning snow set against warm, wooden and colourful interiors.
Mijake Lamp and the led light, 360° adjustable on a polyhedral base.
BUJIA
The nostalgia of night time candles that transform themselves into an emergency candelabra-light. The ability to conjure up a style and atmosphere spending low consumption, so much so they can be powered by a rechargeable battery.
TRUSH IN
A coloured bag holder that turns into a table cable holder, a soft textiles line, redesigning a commonly used object, from the crude industrial standards to a fun ornament.
For Miyake, the variety of ideas that are made up into plurality uses with a necessity in mind, throw the basis of liveableness of the FUTURE: EVERYTHING CANNOT BUT START FROM A DREAM.
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