Uehara and Watanabe first began working as a team in 1999. Together they have been involved in a number of distinctive projects, including direction at D-BROS – a venture began by DRAFT Co., Ltd. to pursue new approaches to products from the standpoint of the graphic designer.

This exhibition, which coincides with the establishment of their new company, will introduce the projects that Uehara and Watanabe have been involved in up to the present. The exhibition title “KIGI” means “trees”, which is a symbol of creation that they chose as their company name with the hope that their creative “tree” might one day grow into a lush “forest”. The works on display, spanning across all genres, probe new approaches in graphic endeavor.

"time paper for V&A Museum" - V&A Museum X D-BROS 2010

"hope forever blossoming" - D-BROS 2011

PASS THE BATON 2009

Theatre Products 2008/2009

"BROOCH" Little More 2006

"FROM DAWN TO DUSK" D_BROS 2008

"D_BROS CONCEPT POSTER" 2006

10th ANNIVERSARY Clematis no OKA" 2012

About Ryosuke Uehara and Yoshie Watanabe

Ryosuke Uehara (left) is born in Hokkaido, Japan and a graduate of Tama Art University. Yoshie Watanabe (right) is born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan and a graduate of Yamaguchi University.

Here is the design team's description of the design: The private room, which accommodates up to 16 seated and 35 standing offers an intimate dining experience. Striking design features include features a bespoke wenge candle wall - inspired by a Hindu temple in Kerala, an imported 8ft Indian fishing boat which has been transformed into a glass topped bar and a floor to ceiling ‘wine wall’. Wall recesses feature softly lit, individual hand-printed ceramic discs which hang in a fish scale pattern.

Sriram Aylur, Executive Chef Quilon says: “designLSM’s creative flair and attention to detail is second to none and I’m delighted with their vision for the restaurant’s new look. The décor now matches the high standard of cuisine.” Steve La Bouchardiere, Managing Director designLSM concludes: “We have really enjoyed being involved in this unique project every step of the way and hope that Quilon diners enjoy a sophisticated bar and dining experience.”

The tower designed by Arata Isozaki and Andrea Maffei as part of the redevelopment programme of the historical trade fair area in Milan commissioned by the company Citylife, is the first, with respect to those by Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind, to start construction at the site. From its newly laid foundations, the skyscraper will reach a height of 207 metres in 2015, and will be the tallest in Italy.

The tower designed by Arata Isozaki and Andrea Maffei, which together with those designed by Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind represents the future Business & Shopping District of CityLife in Milan (a subsidiary company of the Generali Group and in which Allianz has a shareholding), is progressing quickly. The foundation bed, which has just been built, is formed of a continuous block of concrete covering a total of 4,260 cubic metres and required 42 hours of continuous work.

The Construction Site
In the last few weeks 62 underpinning piles over 30 metres long were constructed out of reinforced concrete, and the foundation bed was reinforced with steel bars, with a total weight of around 1,200 tonnes. 630 m2 of formwork and 570 m2 of thermal insulation panels have already been laid. The dimensions of the base of the tower in the plan are 63 x 27 metres, while the sides of the building, which will rest on this base, measure 61.50 x 24 metres. This is the state of the construction site, which has exceptional proportions, both physical and technological. The work programme provides for a series of actions that are closely related to each other: first the structures, then as the floors are gradually freed from the temporary scaffolding, the façades will be assembled.

The Concept
The skyscraper, comprised of a modular system that can in theory repeat indefinitely, has six office floors in each of the eight modules clad with a double-glazed glass skin. The vertical continuation of the modules, slightly convex, has been designed to create the concept of a tower without end. The tower makes reference to the “Endless Tower” built in 1918 by the sculptor Rumeno Constantin Brâncuşi for the Târgu Jiu public garden in Romania. Four slanted “struts” help to support the tower along the two main façades (reducing, among other things, the bulk of the load-bearing structures in the internal space) and act as one of the bracing systems. The side façades are partly glazed and display the structure of the panoramic elevators that lead to the various floors of the building.

The building, moreover, has an underground car park with spaces for 611 cars and 93 motorcycles. The project has already obtained the LEED Gold Pre-certification, meeting the environmental sustainability requirements provided for by the Leed™ international standards. “In our archipelago of forms", explains Andrea Maffei "We found it interesting to develop the idea of a skyscraper without end, a sort of endless tower. We wanted to study a concept to be applied to the skyscraper, even before imagining its aesthetics. In the aspiration for maximum height, we chose to apply the concept of a modular system that could repeat indefinitely and seamlessly.”

PROJECT DATA AND CREDITS
Project: TCa CityLife Tower, Milan, Italy
Program: offices
Client: CityLife s.r.l., Milan, Italy
Architects: Arata Isozaki and Andrea Maffei
Design team: Pietro Bertozzi, Takeshi Miura, Alessandra De Stefani, Chiara Zandri, Vincenzo Carapellese, Roberto Balduzzi, Francesca Chezzi, Takatoshi Oki, Stefano Bergagna, Paolo Evolvi, Elisabetta Borgiotti, Adolfo Berardozzi, Sofia Bedinsky, Atsuko Suzuki, Antonietta Bavaro, Carlotta Maranesi, Higaki Seisuke, Hidenari Arai / Andrea Maffei Architects s.r.l., Milan, Italy.
Structural engineering: Maurizio Teora (PD), Luca Buzzoni (PM), Matteo Baffetti / Arup Italia s.r.l., Milan, Italy, Favero & Milan Ingegneria s.p.a., Mirano, Italy
Facades: Mikkel Kragh, Mauricio Cardenas, Matteo Orlandi, Maria Meizoso, Carlos Prada / Arup Italia s.r.l., Milan, Italy
Mechanical systems: Gianfranco Ariatta, Roberto Menghini, Riccardo Lucchese, Andrea Ambrosi, Sylvia Zoppo Vigna / Ariatta Ingegneria dei sistemi s.r.l., Milan, Italy
Fire control: Salvatore Mistretta, Milan, Italy
Vertical infrastructures: Jappsen Ingenieure, Frankfurt, Germany
Lighting design: LPA Light Planners Associates, Tokyo, Japan
Sound engineering: Vernon Cole, Cole Jarman, Addlestone, Surrey, United Kingdom
Project management: J&A, Milan, Italy, Ramboll, London, United Kingdom
Size: built surface for the tower: 81.615 mq
Surface for parking areas (outdoors and underground): 44.485 mq.
Maximum building height: 207 m
Number of floors: 50
Number of office floors: 46
Number of work stations: 3864
Schedule: competition: 2003 (results: 2004) / design: 2005-2011 / start of construction: 2012 / estimated completion: 2015

About Arata Isozaki and Andrea Maffei

The collaboration between Arata Isozaki (Oita, Japan, 1931), the illustrious Japanese master, and Andrea Maffei (Modena, Italy, 1968), began for the first time in 1997, when the Italian architect moved to Tokyo to work alongside the master.

Arata Isozaki graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1954 and studied with Kenzo Tange. In 1963 he founded the Arata Isozaki Atelier, today Arata Isozaki & Associates. Member of the Pritzker Prize jury from 1979 to 1984, Isozaki has received international recognition for his works that have been built all over the world.

Responsible for the Italian projects by Isozaki, Andrea Maffei was project architect for the Palahockey in Torino, built for the winter Olympics in 2006, and for the Olympic pool and the Piazza d’Armi park in Torino, also built in the same year.

This fibres of crushed sugarcane stalks, remaining after raw sugar is extracted from the juice of the sugarcane by shredding it, is now the raw material that forms the base of this installed eco friendly interior product. The raw material used for WallArt 3d-wallpanels is 100% recycled, compostable and therefore 100% biodegradable.

Bagasse, as a residue of sugarcane, is one of the world’s most renewable sources because sugarcane can be harvested up to 3 times a year. The total harvest worldwide is more than 1.2 billion metric tons yearly and out of each 3 ton of sugarcane there remains 1 ton of bagasse.

Analyzing the act of seating, as a symbolic gesture, Bounce re-creates the dynamic relation between comfort, health and well being. In this system, the chair presents it self as a unique and innovative model that adopts the functionality of a pilates ball and applies it to a new formal and structural form and materials.

Inspired by the pilates ball, where there is no back rest, the handle is not designed to lean your back but to force the body to align with the vertical axis of the chair keeping the weight aligned with the rotation center of the chair.
Bounce allows the user to be in constant movement always keeping a pleasant and stimulating confront.