This morning I came across this fantastic collection of photographs depicting the projects of Terunobu Fujimori and their residents.

It’s so nice to see the scale of the people in their own homes, as well as their interaction in the unique spaces.

Charring cedar wood for cladding.

Professor Fujimori and his “Too tall tree house”.

All photos from here

In anticipation of our exhibition CEREMONY with Claesson Koivisto Rune on Wednesday January 23rd, we’ve put together a collection of images to provide a bit of context for the architect firm in case you weren’t already familiar with their work.

We hope you enjoy!

Kråkmora Holmar.

Örsta gallery.

N0. 5 house.

Råman house.

Sfera building, Kyoto.

Marrakech tile exhibition.

Dandelion tile.

Model for Espina De Cruz + residential house.

Kin Urushi tea light holders

Monet – Japanese candies

Brasilia coffee table with Boxplay sofas.

Spin poufs

Vass cabinet and Press magazine holder.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone on the 23rd! All three founding members of Claesson Koivisto Rune will be attendance, so please drop in and say hello.

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a nice weekend.

We get some nice light in our bedroom, so I thought I would take a couple of snaps to share it with you this morning. When we first moved into our home, the upstairs kitchen and living room still were being renovated, so our bedroom became our sanctuary and we kept it nice and tidy while the rest of the rooms were filled with boxes or being worked on.

We’ve developed such a connection to this room that we find ourselves having lunch or a spot of coffee here like we did those first few weeks of moving in.

We lovingly refer to this floor as our apartment. A habit I don’t think we will ever shake.

Rough linen sheets, and Pia Wallen Crux blanket.

A permanent fixture in our bedroom – Isha.

My brother gave me this beautiful Hinoki cedar wood aroma diffuser. It makes our room smell like a Japanese spa. The other little objects are glass paper weights by Tsuji Kazumi.

A set of bowls by our friend Renaud the potter (Atelier Des cent-ans).

Did you know we carry Noguchi lights at Mjölk? We don’t sell them online by request of the manufacturer, but we have some beautiful specimens in our showroom right now. This light we specially ordered for the bedroom because it’s the same one that adorns Mirei Shigemori’s tea house.

Happy New Year everyone!

We’re very excited to announce our first exhibition of 2013.

Along with a retrospective of Claesson Koivisto Rune’s furniture, design accessories, and architectural models we are debuting a small series of products inspired by The Japanese Tea Ceremony and Swedish Fika coffee culture.

The collaborative work is executed by local Toronto artisans:

Alissa Coe of Coe and Waito

Scott Eunson – sculpture artist and wood worker

and

Adian Kuzyk – wood artisan.

Please stop by to see the exhibition and meet our guests of honour:
Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune!

Invitation design by Sali Tabacchi

When one thinks of contemporary gardens in Japan, there couldn’t be anyone more infamous than Mirei Shigemori. He was an artist both immersed in abstract art and western modernism, as well as traditional Japanese cultural arts such as gardening, ikebana, and the Tea Ceremony. He brought a new form of gardening to Japan incorporating ground breaking elements into his gardens – including his use of concrete – “liquid stone” a man made material that had never been used in a Japanese garden before, the ripple like effect of raking pebbles,  creating an image of waves against pointed rock islands, and finally the work of his rock gardens both symbolizing purity, but at the same commenting on the state of the environment and the future world devoid of nature.

Although he was greatly influenced by western culture, his garden designs were enriched by the traditional Japanese gardens he admired so much. He was always on the cutting edge, but he never deviated too much away from natural aesthetic value. A garden is man made and thus doesn’t necessarily have to imitate nature, we can manipulate it to romanticize the best qualities of nature and use it to tell a story.

Mirei Shigemori, offered this story as a way to explain man’s close connection to gardening:

“When people lived in primitive huts or caves, as hunters and gatherers did. They enjoyed intimate contact with nature and the gods. But this changed when ancient people built houses and started to spend more time indoors, protected from the direct contact with nature and its forces. So the process of civilization in this respect was a path to alienation from the gods in nature, creating an increasing distance between man and nature.

Then, there came a point when people, fearing the absence of the gods, started to bring nature back into their lives and close to their homes in the form of gardens.”

Above:
Tiles and moss from Tofuku-ji Hojo, one of Shigemori’s first commissions. He took on the project without asking for money because he knew it was an oppurtunity to create something that might last forever. Shigemori was free to do whatever he wanted with the design, but the Buddists who ran the temple asked if he would include the use of the paving stones in the garden, as their Zen-sect was not allowed to let anything go to waste. This iconic pattern of paving stones and moss has now been copied all around the world.

Clipped azaleas inspired by rice fields in Japan.

Mirei Shigemori’s Garden residence, onlooking a collection of vertical stones. The pendant light hanging above was a gift by his friend and fellow designer Isamu Noguchi.

Hashi no Niwa garden, Komyo-in temple.

Picture window – rock formation.

Matsuo Taisha shrine, one of Shigemori’s masterpieces.

Most of the above photos were taken from the book Rebel in the Garden.

This morning I opened up my computer and for some reason decided to visit Fredericia’s website. I knew they were working on it, and I’ve been checking the past few days to see if there was any progress being made. To my surprise when I visited their link I was welcomed by a fresh new homepage and an intriguing link at the top of the webpage saying “inspiration”.

It was here that I saw the first images of Børge Mogensen’s summer home, a set of photographs that I have never seen before!

As with other Mogensen designed homes there are some clear themes that resonate throughout the space. The lime plaster washed brick, the central fireplace, the natural stone floors, the Japanese garden, and of course Mogensen’s beautiful furnishings.

They concluded with this caption:

“When Børge Mogensen and his family took time off, they went to their summer cottage in sandy North Jutland, but with clear evidence, Børge never took time off… The design office is one of the largest rooms in the house.”

A beautiful central courtyard with Nyhavn wall sconces, and a special Mogensen bench.

A J39 chair and the 6284 table both of which you can see in person at Mjolk.

One sofa we wish we could incorporate in our lives. We first saw this sofa at Professor Oda’s house during our trip to Hokkaido Japan.

A grass rug sits under one half of the desk.

Leather pulls on the pantry, with a woven chair in the background.

Oak kitchen with brass hinges.