People are saying "Go To Travel, Go To Travel," but the reality is that we can't go out or travel freely. There are a few places I'd like to go to once this situation is over.
HOUSE OF FINN JUHL HAKUBA
This hotel and showroom is run by One Collection, a Danish company that produces and sells Finn Juhl's current products.
The building was originally a pension and has been renovated to allow you to experience Finn Juhl's furniture.
The location is Hakuba Village, Nagano Prefecture. Finn Juhl is a Danish furniture designer and architect known for many impressive chairs with sculptural wooden frames.
A few decades ago, I saw a vintage Niels Boetter rosewood 45 in a store and asked how much it cost, and was told it was 4 million yen.
I heard from One Collection that a Chieftain chair, also made by Niels Boetter, was sold for 80 million yen at an overseas auction.
It almost feels like art. It's wonderful to be surrounded by such furniture (current items) in the nature of Hakuba.
There are five rooms, each named after one of Finn Juhl's chairs: Chieftain, Poet, France Chair, Japan Sofa, or Pelican Chair. Each room has a different interior and furniture, so you can stay there at least five times without getting bored.
And what's even better is the free drinks (including alcohol) during your stay at the hotel.
I'd like to stay home and relax in the hotel, taking naps while fantasizing about what it would be like if this were my home.
The furniture placement and color scheme can also be helpful when buying furniture for your home. It's a place you want to go to with a relaxed feeling.
https://houseoffinnjuhlhakuba.com
HOUSE OF FINN JUHL HAKUBA brochure
"Celebrating 100 Years of Bauhaus: The Foundation of Art and Design Education"
The exhibition is running at Tokyo Station Gallery until September 6, 2020.
Bauhaus celebrated its 100th anniversary last year and has been touring several locations around the country and is currently being held in Tokyo.
I remembered hearing about Bauhaus in textbooks when I was in interior design school, but quite a while ago I got tired of wooden chairs and was looking for a metal chair, when I was attracted to a chair with a cantilever structure that felt like you were floating when you sat there.I looked into it again and became interested.
Some of the more famous chairs include Marcel Breuer's Wassily Chair and Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Chair, but I would like to have Marcel Breuer's Cesca Chair in my home someday.
The combination of different materials, metal and rattan, is cool, and the cantilever structure makes it comfortable to sit on.
The Bauhaus philosophy of simple, functional beauty, which eliminates unnecessary decoration, and the graphic design are also cool. I don't know the contents of this exhibition, but I'm sure it will be a worthwhile exhibition, so it's a place I'd like to go to with my senses sharpened.
https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/gallery/exhibition/202006_bauhaus.html
An architect told me, "Doi-kun, you love Bauhaus!"
LICHT
A newly opened gallery by the owner of HIKE, a shop that sells Scandinavian furniture.
I haven't been there yet, but I personally agree with the concept of breaking away from conventional ideas and collecting playful furniture, both new and old, from Japan and abroad, and the furniture on display is wonderful.
There are many places that deal in Scandinavian and mid-century furniture, but a gallery that brings together 1990s furniture by Jasper Morrison and Philippe Starck, as well as Sottsass, Carlo Scarpa, Enzo Mari, Konstantin Grcic, Le Corbusier, Charlotte Périat, Kuramata Shiro, Richard Hutten, and others, like the ones on display here, is a unique offering (as far as I know), and there are so many pieces by interesting designers that just looking at the website gets me excited.
It's an exciting gallery that will keep you interested in what products will be on display in the future. It's a place you'll want to visit to see furniture you've never seen before.
Mart Stam's gas pipe frame, which I was excited to see in person at Vitra.
(text: Doi)
DOI KOUHEI
Born in Toyama Prefecture, currently living in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, 40 years old
After becoming interested in furniture, I wanted to work in the interior design industry, so I went to an interior design school in Kanazawa. After working at a store interior design company, I started working at an interior design shop when I was about 23 years old.
Currently, I work at an interior design shop in Kanazawa City, doing everything from sales, corporate sales, furniture planning, and occasional delivery.
My hobbies are moderate running so I can drink alcohol without gaining weight, and simple cooking because I enjoy cutting vegetables with a knife.