The pleating folding pattern is generated from a revolved shape using a graphical algorithm. The changing angle of each fold creates a tessellated origami form from one sheet of paper.

Prior research focused on a range of tessellated origami patterns.

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We’ve rescheduled the open house event to Dec. 3rd. We hope this gives you more time to plan to attend. We apologize for any confusion caused.

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Panels covering the AC unit and storage have yet to be installed because they are having holes cut by CNC off-site.

The thick panels  allowed us to cleanly detail their junctions with greater ease. Corners (such as the stair nosings) were lap-jointed rather than simply mitered. Here, the daiku-san (carpenter) is creating a recessed channel so that the metal hand rail (not pictured) can be secured flush with the timber riser.

A ladder provides access to the roof via the pivoting skylight. When not in use, the ladder can be removed and hung against the wall.

A surfboard storage rack  is inside the shed.

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The builder in Onjuku invited us and the client down to his hometown near Onjuku to celebrate the local matsuri (harvest festival).
Similar celebrations are commonplace throughout every small town and city in Japan at this time of year. The Matsuri in Ohara is unique because the mikoshi (portable shrine / palanquin) is dipped into the sea. Apparently, this is not part of the ancient procession or tradition. Local revelers have gotten so caught-up in the festivities that it has literally spilled over into the water in recent years.
Afterwards we took in a local sake tasting.

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23:00 – Warehouse

We started the night at Warehouse. The club is about as imaginative as its name suggests. We happened to arrive in time to see the last two contestants – surprisingly a mixture of female and male – in a pole dancing competition. Lucky us!

From our vantage point in the rear VIP area, we could survey the whole club. When the dancing and music resumed we observed that, unlike in American or European clubs where dancers spread out and dance to entertain and impress one another, Tokyo clubbers seem to congregate around and idolize the DJ. Dancing is obviously secondary to the music.

00:30 – Ageha

Next we bused it out to Shin Kiba – on a reclaimed island in Tokyo Bay not far from Disneyland – to see Ageha. This super club is a sprawling complex of warehouses and outdoor spaces. Ageha’s atmosphere is more arena rock than night club.

One of Ageha's custom speakers

What Ageha lacks in intimacy, it attempts to make-up for with shear scale, the diversity of rooms, and the awesome power of its purpose-built speaker system.

We visited on a night sponsored by a cigarette company. Sci-fi girls were roaming the bars and break-out spaces pushing smokes.

02:00 – Womb

Next, we headed back into the city. Weaving our way through Shibuya’s densely clustered love hotels, we pulled up at oneof the city’s most venerated clubbing institutions: Womb. The main dance floor is taller than it is wide, focusing energy and sound on the floor. The DJ operates from one of the glass booths overlooking the dancefloor, adding to the sense of mystery.

Womb feels like a purist’s club, free of distractions and gimmicks. If the music is great, it’s great. If not, the experience could be rather dull and empty, like being locked in a gymnasium at night.

One of the gems was the upstairs room lit by a pulsating grid of colored lights. It had the scale and silly abandon of a karaoke booth.

03:30 – Hachi / Oath

Our last stop was Hachi (Bee), and Oath, two small clubs tucked away in Aoyama. Hachi is a vertical stack of tiny rooms. Going up and down stairs, sampling the various rooms was fun, but lacked enough people to create the house party vibe it needed to work.

Oath's skull emblazoned decor is a delightful non sequitur

Next door at Oath, a serious party was underway and spilling out onto the street. This place undoubtedly had the best atmosphere of the night and (tellingly) there were no bouncers or admission to enter. Inside its quirky, intimate interior, a small and eclectic crowd was dancing fervently as the sun came over Tokyo.

Oath and Hachi in Aoyama: far from glamorous, but more fun that way.

Notes and Provocations:

The camera flash exposes what the mirror ball does not. Ductwork above the dance floor at Warehouse.

The three big clubs are all dark spaces. They purposely suppress what – in the light of day – are probably uninspiring to downright horrible interiors. This is because, conventionally, clubs use lighting (spots, strobes, blacklights, mirror balls,etc) to create an ever-evolving and contrasting environment that keeps pace with the music. They only see activity at night, so who cares what they look like during the day?

Will the Milan Design Week club be used as an exhibition venue during the daytime (we think it should). If so, the design approach should seek to redefine the nocturnal nature of the club with some form of meaningful transformation between night and day.

The line to warehouse stretches down the street past the entrance to a shrine.

Clubs veil their entrances in exclusivity (bouncers, guest lists, lines down the street, small doors, velvet ropes, etc) to generate desire and momentary insecurity in the clubgoer’s mind. Inside the club further levels of exclusivity remain in the form of VIP areas. All this generates perceived demand from the outside, whilst never revealing the reality on offer inside. Admission is designed to grant a triumphant feeling of worthiness, expectancy, and, eventually, belongingness to the club.

Is there a way to invert the usual entrance ceremony to the club? Could it be democratized or more creatively regulated?

One of the garish lovel hotels next to Womb. A model for a new night club?

Clubs – like most things in Japan – prove smaller can be better. Miniature clubs (like the upstairs room at Womb and the various floors of Hachi) offer the exciting potential to curate a variety of environments and music into one venue. It gives visitors the opportunity to sample and get something different out of the same place each time, like the wildly themed rooms of a love hotel.

With several designers collaborating in the same space, miniaturization could offer a little piece for everyone.

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We were chosen as one of the winners of  the Heineken Open Design Explorations contest. The project will bring together designers from Milan, New York, São Paulo, and Tokyo to showcase their ideas in a club-themed event space.

We are looking forward to collaborating with the other selected creatives who include fashion, video, lighting, and graphic designers to craft a unique installation.

More info»

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With the exterior almost complete, there’s still a lot to do inside…

With most of the plasterboard in place, the carpenters are now focusing on installing the timber panels that make-up the stairs, doors, and built-in furniture. The ‘Tateguya-san’ is responsible for all doors and shutters. With so many concealed details (hinges, etc), he’s finding this project a challenge.

Upstairs, the loft is almost finished. Paper protects the hardwood flooring. A built-in desk and cabinets will go below the windows. The skylight illuminates the space, whilst providing ventilation and access to the roof (via ladder).

Slippers are mandatory on-site.

The beach house is framed by its local surroundings.

It’s nice to see waste being sorted by type for recycling. Small cans of sweetened coffee are a staple of Japanese builders.

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The cedar cladding has been treated with a dark preservative stain. Although this looks nearly black from afar, the grain of the wood is very apparent up close.

Sliding wooden shutters will be installed to run across the length of the wood deck (not yet installed). This is simliar to a traditional Japanese engawa. They are stored in recesses when the beach house is open.

The roof has been prepared for the roof cladding onto which the roof deck will be installed.

As is usual in Japan, site meetings can go well into the evening. Contractors are eager to discuss details and offer suggestions.

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Precut – Modern Japanese Timber Construction from BAKOKO on Vimeo.

Industrially precut timber framing has become the predominant house construction method throughout Japan. In our first short documentary, we explain the process from factory floor to building site. Like so much of its traditional culture, Japan has developed a highly efficient technological adaptation of an age-old building technique.

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It took only a day to erect the precut timber frame of the beach house.

Mortise and tenon joints were precut in a factory (we’re writing a detailed post documenting this process – coming soon…).

Two skilled carpenters (or daikusan) are working on the job. But to erect the frame everyone from the electrician to the interior decorator was called upon to help.

The pre-numbered members are hoisted by crane and fitted together with the help of a large wooden mallet.

The workers obviously enjoy the process which is akin to piecing together a large wooden puzzle.

The precut joints are reinforced with steel bolts, providing an additional factor of safety in the event of a large earthquake.

Only some parts of the angled wooden truss reinforcing the southern facade could not be cut by the precut machinery.  These had to be hand-cut and fitted by the daiku-san (pictured).

The topping out ceremony (or Jo To Shiki) is a dying custom, but its a chance for the entire project team, including the client and designers to celebrate and build rapport.

See the latest construction images at BAKOKO’s Facebook page.

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