‘Curtain Wall House’ by Shigeru Ban Architects, photo: Hiroyuki Hirai

The client of this house has long enjoyed an open and free “downtown-culture” lifestyle in this formerly Japanese-style house. The house is intended to be opened up as much as possible to the exterior so that the owner can maintain this kind of attitude in contemporary life with the use of contemporary materials. (text by Shigeru Ban Architects)

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The collaboration between Artek and the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has been going on for several years now. At this year´s Salone del Mobile the Finnish manufacturer presented ’10-unit system’ by Shigeru Ban under the motto “One chair is enough”. The modular system consits of only one element. With a minimum of ten pieces one can create chairs of varying designs, stools, coffee tables, and even combine them for benches and more.

We had the pleasure to meet Shigeru Ban on the Artek stand in Milan.

to the Artek collection @ Architonic

Thermoplastic non woven fabric applied by Nendo

With the Milan Design Week ‘Senseware’ the exhibition of Tokyo Fiber was opened at the Triennale. With inspiring applications and designs by international designers and architects such as Shigeru Ban, Ross Lovegrove, Gwenael Nicolas and Kengo Kuma the Japanese textile industry showed the potential of its new inventions.

Applied as minimal lampshades

For the minimal lampshades the Japnaese design studio Nendo used the highly thermoplastic non woven fabric, invented by Asahi Kasei Corporation.

Carbon fibre chair designed by Shigeru Ban

Shigeru Ban´s carbon fibre chair consists of a thin aluminium frame and carbon fibres by Teijin Ltd.

Optical fibres in concrete by Kengo Kuma

Kengo Kuma´s installation is an application of optical fibres cast into concrete blocks. The fibres are produced by Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd.

A sculpture of a mono-filament by Yasuhiro Suzuki

This highly elastic mono-filament is produced by Toyobo Co., Ltd. and can be used as a cushioning material.

to the Tokyo Fiber website

Shigeru Ban on his '10-unit system' he developed for Artek

Shigeru Ban was setting new benchmarks with his famous bamboo structures long before sustainable building became part of the agenda of many architects. For the Finnish manufacturer Artek the Japanese designer has now developed a modular furniture system which once more illustrates the principle of using resources economically.

As a bench

It is based on L-shaped units that can be combined in all sorts of ways to make furniture – a chair, a table, a bench. Putting furniture together and disassembling it is made easy by the ingenious yet simple design.

The single elements of the system

10-UNIT SYSTEM is made from UPM ProFi, an environmentally innovative wood plastic composite. Its principal raw materials are recycled paper and plastic. The composite has proved to be tough and humidity resistant. It is an environmentally sustainable material that can be disposed of by incineration, or recycled back into the production process. All materials in the composite are non-toxic.

Artek at Salone Internazionale del Mobile, April 22-27, 2009 Hall 12 Booth C 14

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