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INTERIORS ARCHIVE: 529: Trend spotting Trina O'Hara takes us on a tour of international furniture fairs to find the top Japanese designers at work today. 521: Child's play Trina O'Hara checks out the design celebrities hatching playful furniture and accessories for kids. 517: Personal Effects In celebration of the centennial of his birth, Trina O'Hara looks at the life and enduring legacy of Japanese-American designer Isamu Noguchi. 513: Seeing the light Trina O'Hara ponders the latest interior design trend and finds the answer is clear. 505: Lights of fancy Trina O'Hara checks out the contemporary chandeliers and whimsical lighting sculptures fast becoming fine art across the city. 501: Natural causes 493: Living rooms Inspired by the diverse lifestyles of this teeming metropolis, design experts Kyoko Asakura and Jaume J. Nasple-Baulenas have compiled an intriguing look inside the city's private homes. Tama Miyake Lung talks to the authors of Tokyo Houses. 489: Living in the past Art editor John McGee reveals three Tokyo stores that specialize in finding the best of what's old in Japanese antiques. 485: Monochrome marvels Black and white are back in fashion and making their mark in the interior design scene. Martin Webb reports on how to get the look for less. 481: Cut and paste Scrapbooking has swept America, where it's big business, and now it's catching on in Japan. Chris Betros attends a "cropalong." 477: Moss cause A sprinkling of moss can transform any windowsill into a miniature Zen temple. Hanna Kite offers some tips for bringing a little tranquility home. 469: Ikebana for idiots With a plethora of rules and schools, Ikebana can be intimidating, not to mention time-consuming. But who says busy people have to miss out on this ancient art form? Georgia Jacobs gives you the basics on no-fuss flower-arrangement. 466: A dyeing breed Winning fans from New York to Tokyo, designer Akiyoshi Yaezawa is putting a traditional stamp on modern accessories using a 17th-century hand-dyeing and painting process. Krista Wilson reports. 457: Party of five Matt Wilce lays out five luscious looks for New Year. 449: Thought out Designers create spaces but they also like to inhabit them. SuperDeluxe offers a place to drink and think for the design community—and of course their friends 445: Design on Tokyo A trio of interior design events is on its way to bring style into our Tokyo living rooms 439: Setting pretty Matt Wilce lays the table with styles for summer. 435: Tropical haven Asian furnishings are finding their way to flats across the city 431: Wed white and blue Treasures of traditional Japanese design, blue and white are the perfect foil for Tokyo's sweltering summers 427: Have a ball Who says you need tickets to catch a piece of World Cup action? 423: Collection point Nishi-Ogikubo's 65 pre-loved furniture stores make up Tokyo's great antique oasis 419: Flower power Bring your gloomy flat back to life with seasonal flowers. 415: On the mend Tokyo's fix-it men can have your furniture back in form 411: Phone home Panasonic unveils the e-lifestyle of the near future 407: Launch Pad Sputnik Pad lands in Jingumae 399: Interiors Retrospective  395: Interiors Kitchenware flare 391: Interiors Ideé is one of Tokyo’s most established interiors stores 387: Inner sanctum The days of sitting on the tatami floor are over 383: Life in style Tokyo's embraces ultra-modern design 367: Wealthy workplaces Put feng shui to work at work 364: Healthy homes The ancient Chinese art of feng shui

Thought out

Designers create spaces but they also like to inhabit them. SuperDeluxe offers a place to drink and think for the design community—and of course their friends—as Stuart Braun discovers.

Tokyo might be a hotbed of interior and product design, but where do the ideas come from? Like anything, they have to be incubated, given life through the alembic of social intercourse and the exchange of ideas. To this end, Klein Dytham architecture (KDa), éminences grises of the design world in Japan (Holland's Frame Magazine claims they have “almost pop star appeal”) along with graphic and art direction team Namaiki, have created SuperDeluxe, a meeting point, gallery and relaxing space, a place for creative, conceptual minds to haggle over their next profound contribution to the world.

Form following function
“Interestingly enough, this project is not primarily about design and interior, but content and creating an experimental but fun space where what happens dictates the environment,” says Mark Dytham, architect, designer, beer brewer and party promoter. The concept is not all new, with KDa's and Namaiki's Deluxe warehouse and office space in Azabu Juban—it will continue to operate as their KDa base camp—long existing as an occasional gallery, performance and party venue. But SuperDeluxe, filling a prime basement in Nishi Azabu on Roppongi Dori, will be a 100 percent dedicated venue, a kind of designer salon where likeminded artistes can linger most nights of the week. “It will act as an incubator, an underground creative kitchen located next to the new ground zero of art in Tokyo, Think Zone and the soon to be opened Mori Art Museum,” Dytham enthuses.

An ongoing installation & animation by the deluxe Institute for Silly Kunst/Namaiki

Though officially launched on November 1, SuperDeluxe underwent previous testing during the Tokyo Designers Block. The venue responded brilliantly: A few hundred designerati packed the spacious concrete bunker on TDB opening night. The space has also withstood some grueling architecture/design symposiums. An innocuous Wednesday evening saw the likes of Yasumasa Yonehara, girly photographer extraordinaire of Egg and SmartGirl fame, some visiting Dutch architects, ZEDZ, one of the world's leading graffiti artists, and of course Dytham and business partner Astrid Klein, preside over a multimedia design show and tell. “We think there is a definite lack of such a space in Tokyo where thinking, drinking people can gather and exchange,” says Namaki's David Duval-Smith.

Broken bagel salad

Ginko nuts as tapas at SuperDeluxe

Having recently enlivened the design world at the Interni in Piazza exhibition in Milan with their “gumi” bath—a rubber bath, shower and wash basin designed to be soft and warm as opposed to hard and cold –- KDa have also added a few witty bathroom touches at SuperDeluxe. Their sinks are made from school science lab sinks and taps—four taps per sink. As for the vast main room, the focus is on the bar, wallpapered in signature SuperDeluxe print-patterned floor tiles, and a central raised stage where guests can lounge on KDa denim beanbags designed in conjunction with Levis. Elsewhere its clean concrete and painted aircon ducts stand apart from some modular chairs, retro ashtrays and scattered design ephemera.

The sense of space is a relief in otherwise cluttered Tokyo, and will invite interesting and dynamic use of the venue, meaning the interior will continually change according to the whims of the people who inhabit it. The lateral scope for expression in SuperDeluxe extends to the range of intended uses for the space. “A place of fun and experimentation. A gallery, a deli, a jazz club and a photo studio. A cinema, a library, a school, a concert hall and a theater. A network of creative minds. A place to be inspired. And a place to inspire others,” say Duval-Smith.

SuperDeluxe will open nightly from 6pm, Wednesday to Saturday, as a bar and café, no matter what other special events might be planned. “No ‘off the shelf' solutions, just interesting and wholesome quality products, including some of Japan's best microbrewed beer,” explains Dytham, who is incorporating his Tokyo Brewery Company (he's a part owner) into the equation.

Networked
Having worked for over 12 years as architects in Tokyo, KDa, who conceived the Idée Workstation and redesigned La Foret well know the value of networking. They argue that SuperDeluxe itself couldn't have happened, both financially and conceptually, without the design and architecture associations formed at Deluxe. “All of the partners have been amazed by the power of Deluxe, the power of crossover, the power of meshed networks. RISA Partners, a real estate investment company we have worked with closely over the past four years along with Pacific IR, are the people who helped make this happen,” Dytham notes.

The SuperDeluxe network will begin to take form this month with an eclectic program of intriguing, mind-altering events. November 22 sees the legendary Willem Breuker Kollektiefon big band (from Amsterdam) on the SuperDeluxe stage. These are 10 crazy yet impeccable musicians whose performances are described as “frightening, hilarious, complicated and hopeful.” Meanwhile, British saxophonist John Butcher will perform November 26, followed by an improvisation trio made up of Radu Malfatti, Taku Sugimoto and Otomo Yoshihide on Dec 10. There is a host of other music, visual, food, and drink related events and workshops planned. Otherwise, visit SuperDeluxe anytime after 6pm (open until 5am) Wednesday-Saturday to find interesting people doing interesting things. “We need to inspire people about architecture, art, design, beer, make them dream. Then make the dreams reality. We have the team, we have the technology,” concludes Duval-Smith.

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Photo credit: Courtesy of SuperDeluxe