Tea and Two-Legged Architecture.

When you see something that causes you to pause, you know its done something to you. Something has changed. Such is the case with when I discovered Terunobu Fujimori. It was last May and I was thumbing through an issue of Dwell when I was caught off guard by this image of his two-legged tea house.

The Too-High Tea House with rolled copper roof.

At first thought, I was sure this was a children’s tree house. Nope, much cooler! Terunobu Fujimori is an architetural historian who has a streak for letting loose his eccentric curiosity of life in his designs, such as the two-legged tea house and a dandilion and grass covered roof.

Fujimori's own residence built in 1995.

Rock siding and grass and dandelions on the roof and walls.

But what captures my senses most of all is the charred walls of a few of his structures. You see, in Japanese culture, the charring of wood is said to protect the structure from insects, moisure damage and other diseases for up to 80 years!

The Charred Cedar House.

Charring process with fire moving evenly up the three planks.

The charred pieces.

Plus, the burnt look adds a way cool charcoal texture that makes the abode even more interesting. He’s surely charred his way into my top list of architects.

The Coal House tea room suspends from second floor, only accessible by ladder.

The Coal House outdoor tea room ladder contrasts with the charred siding.

The tea rooms low ceiling created an adult playroom, intimate and ready for tea time.

Architecture and nature combine in many of Fujimori’s projects. From trees, grasses, and plants, Fujimori built amusing structures that deserve a second glance.

The Hot Spring House has two pines sticking out of the top - nature and architecture.

The Camellia Castle has a soft grass-covered roof and a cladding of grass and stone.

This humpback children's museum has a playful tone.

Those of you near the Outback can see an art installation by Teruobu Fujimori at the RMIT Gallery.

Energizer Monkey Bars.

The Electric Slide article in this months Dwell magazine is a must read for those of us who are curious about new ways to give back to this pretty planet while educating integral age groups. How about starting a busy and interactive playground that produces power from the stomping and swinging of energetic kids? Well, looks like someone claims fame to the idea.

 

Click on image to see video of this illustrations' creation.

 

Click here to go to the article online or see it transcribed below…

“For something that’s meant to celebrate the pleasures of childhood, the playground sure has gotten old. The essential program—–swings, slides, monkey bars—–is as limited and predictable as the activities it’s designed to promote. Though a playground may divert or entertain, rarely does it engender the kinds of social interactions that can meaningfully teach. It’s true that even the most uninspiring variant will whip a kid into furious expenditures of energy, but the outcome is a small, if satisfying, harvest: a better appetite and a tighter night’s sleep.

All of this caused professor Alice Chun to ponder how a 16,000-square-foot vacant lot in Stuyvesant Town, the Manhattan residential development where she lives with her husband and young son, might be used to change all that. “There are merry-go-rounds in Africa and India that generate energy,” she notes. “Children play on them, and villages with no water or electricity are able to pump from wells and have light. If they’re doing it there, why can’t we do it here?” Consequently she put this playful challenge to the graduate students in the design-build studio she teaches at Columbia University.

The as-yet-unbuilt playground, which the students named Kids Climb-It, is an all-rubber, recycled, and recyclable environment featuring 18 tripods—–constructed from steel pipes enclosed in rubber balls—–with rope nets strung between them. As kids climb the nets, their motion activates generators in the tripods’ peaks, which produce energy that’s stored in underground batteries.

The net system—–with eight distinct zones including ramps, tunnels, and vines—–encourages children to use their imaginations to develop their own games. Some of the rubber balls on the tripods trigger lights, bells, and water misters across the entire landscape, and a time and energy stopwatch enables kids to calculate how much power their games can generate within a fixed time period. And because the netting zones have been designed to attract different age groups, Kids Climb-It also functions as a kind of neighborhood in miniature, teaching and encouraging children with varying skill sets, temperaments, and degrees of maturity how to interact with each other.

As a reimagining of the aesthetics of play, a more efficient use of public space, a producer of clean power, and a landscape that encourages young people to think independently, Kids Climb-It is more than simple recreation. It looks to be a model of what tomorrow’s playgrounds, and citizens, might very well be.”

Dwell in this Playroom.

Dwell Magazine is featuring a fantastic slideshow (slthough very brief) on interior design and its beautiful and very functionally modern take on the playroom for kids. I love the outdoor teepee! Check it out!