Graduation work

salatekstiä :)
Click to enlarge or browse the preview pages from the righ side. 

It's finally done! Last Thursday I had my final presentation and basically I'm done with my school. On above there is a virtual replica of the book I made about my final project in Bali. Unfortunately it is only in Finnish, but there is an abstract in English and many many pictures.

My original plan was to share the process here on real time, but since the actual doing took so much time and energy, in the end I only made few posts from Bali. Now after the presentation there is again time to breath and share the work - better late than never :)

Working time

Back in Ubud and started my work here.

Im doing my graduation work here at my friends' hotel. We are renovating two old rooms and slowly the plans are getting togther. So far I have only made the data of the rooms with all the measurements and material analyses, but hopefully soon we can start to take down the old ceiling and floor tiles ect.

I'll try to post more about the process once we get it really started!

Here are some photos of one of the rooms we will renovate.

Kakurega

School is over! Yattaa! It was wierd to spent all June and July at school since normally that is the time for out summer vacation, but in Japan it's the busy time to finish all projects and reports. But now everything is done!

Here I'm showing some slides of my major project of this semester. Every week we had a meeting with our professor and showed what we have done during the week and decided what we will present next week. One semester later it was a full package of drawings, plans, concept and material boards and 3D illustrations.

But here are some slides from my presentation we gave after the project was done.

Tatami stool - school work

It is the last weeks of this semester so naturally it is filled with schoolwork. Last week I had a presentation about my restaurant project, and this week I have been workig with some reports and these presentation pictures of a stool I designed and made. The pictures were taken in studio and in a really beautiful restaurant here in Kyoto, or actually in two different tea rooms of the restaurant.

畳こしかけ (tatami stool)

tatami stool is a mixture of traditional Japanese elements and modern, minimalistic form. It consists of two parts: a wooden frame structure and a changeable tatami cushion.

The key words for the design were simple, minimalistic shape, ecological approach and a possibility to variate/customise the product. The inspiration was found in Japanese  harmonious, traditional lifestyle and materials.

The wooden structure is very simple. The silhouette comes from Japanese “torii” gates.The four legs are implanted staight to the main board that works as a base for the whole stool. The wooden frame around the seat hides an air space between the main board and tatami cushion. By using the stiff flexibility of tatami, the cushion will give in and create a curved surface when it’s seated on. Tatami’s pleasant surface doesn’t only feel good but also creates the main pattern of the product. By using different colours and patterns in the heri framing the cushion, the stool can be customised to match the interiors it is lockated in.

The cushions are made of recycled materials. Both the inner tatami board and the mushiro on top are leftovers from the tatami manufacturing and usually these pieces ends up being thrown away. The smaller pieces that doesn’t fill the standard sizes of tatami mats can still be used for different kind of products.

Tatami stool is a simple supporting furniture that can be customised to fit many kind of  spaces and purposes. It celebrates the Japanese minimalism and sense of pure shapes and traditional materials.

Restaurant Haikara - school work

Last Thuesday I had my presentation of a design project I've been doing since coming to Japan. It is a Japanese restaurant in Finland. It is a mixture of these two cultures and countries. Every week I had a meeting with my professor to discuss and build my concepts and generally get more information about our countries ways of living and the sense of aesthetics and so on.

I would like to thank you all who came to follow my presentation and made good questions and points about the project.

Here are few pictures to show how it turned out to be.