Because of relentless speed of technological and industrial developments, production process are too complicated and we are totally disconnected from material. This doesn’t merely mean that we don’t have a chance to feel material, but also we lose chance to read tradition, culture and history which exist between material and us. Therefore, in order to reconnect to material, it’s necessary to intervene in the industry and get closer to material by ourselves. The designer thinks that by choosing familiar materials and creating a bond between himself and materials through design practice, he can take a first step to rediscover hiden narratives between human and material.
This project is in collaboration with the stone company in Eindhoven, Mario Galante Natuursteen Eindhoven.
Stone is one of the familiar materials for the designer. In his home country, Japan, stones can be found in various areas. In mountains, they are used for pavements, in an archtecture field, it's used for construction of open public baths at hot springs, and in Japanese traditional rock gardens, it's used to depict lively nature sceneries inside architecture. Stones are not only for practical use, it has special meaning for Shinto (神道) because big stones are worshipped as gods from ancient times in shrines. Thus, stones personally and culturally have a strong connection to him.
In order to have an intervention in the industry, the question is “how”. Considering our current environment, we are deeply embedded in mass production, mass consumption, mass disposal cycle, which made the designer to take an action against this toxic cycle. So he decided to collect waste from the stone industry and making something valuable out of it. He researched the stonemason industry in Eindhoven where he live, and luckily he visited one of stone companies in Eindhoven, Mario Galante Natuursteen Eindhoven. The company is originated in Italy and they work on marble stone. He talked with them and found out that they weekly dispose a big metal container filled with marble leftover. It’s no longer valuable for their production, but for him, it’s really beautiful and valuable materials.
To give a personal connection to material, the designer referred to his country’s craftsman techniques. One of Japanese traditional carpenter’s craftsmanship is Hikaritsuke (光付け). The term came from the meaning of combining two differenet materials without any gaps so that no hikari* can come through between the connection of materials. (*hikari means "light" in Japanese.) Histrorically this technique was used for basements of temples and shrines where stones hold whole wooden architecture. Technically this technique is cutting edes of wooden beam above stone to fit perfectly with complicated surface of stone. Another famous Japanese craftsman technique is Kigumi. Kigumi is jointing wooden beams seamlessly without any gaps. Because glue is never used in this wood locking system, joints are sustainable and strong, but they have also really sophisticated aesthetic values. Hikaritsuke and Kigumi are both locking system, but one is “stone and wood” and the other is “wood and wood”. Then, how about “stone and stone”? Are there any special craftsman techniques? Actually, in Italy there is special marble technique called “Italian laying” and Mario Galante Natuursteen Eindhoven is proud of this techniques. Normally tiles are laid in mortar and grouted, so you can see gaps between each tile. But using that techniques, each marble piece can be connected with each other seamlessly and it looks like a whole one piece.
Both hikarituke and Kigumi can provide a personal connection and Italian laying can contextualise the relationship between the designer and Italian craftsmanship culture. And in order to make this context stronger, he decided to design a bookstand because it’s really familiar product in his daily life. Then, his next question was “how to create seamless, glue-less connection with minimal aesthetic gestures?” So he did material research through trying connection between marble and wood without using any glue in order to find an ideal execution.
