Japanese zen gardens inspired the sinuous design of this shapeshifting timber table

Outside In is a multifunctional, shapeshifting table that incorporates hand-carved grooves into its timber frame to resemble the raked ruts of Japanese zen gardens.

Japanese zen gardens have supplied ceaseless inspiration for designers. While the sheer meditative quality of zen gardens is enough to insight some new ideas, the artful design of zen gardens rakes its own creative vision for designers. Melbourne-based furniture, lighting, and object design company Sabu Studio found its own creative vision by way of Japanese zen gardens when designing the minimalist Outside In table.

Designer: Sabu Studio x Samuel Burns

Designed for his collection of personal and bespoke projects, Sabu Studio founder Samuel Burns designed Outside In to be a multifunctional, shapeshifting table defined by its sinuous timber surface that resembles the hand-raked grooves of a zen garden.

While the tabletop’s timber grooves resemble zen gardens’ raked ruts, they also double as rails for hand-carved granite and marble elements to slide between and provide functional flat surfaces. Two halves of a rectangular marble element can separate to create two small flat surfaces. Or, when users need a larger tabletop surface, the two halves come together to form a larger rectangle.

Burns turned to the flow of water and Japanese zen gardens to introduce elements of nature to interior city spaces. Fully functional as a table, Outside In is a crafty piece of furniture that would look right at home in hospitality common spaces or even event halls.

Explaining the piece’s origins, Burns notes, “The primary aim of Outside In was to introduce a sense of the natural world into interior spaces through form and symbolism. The design investigates materials dialogues and the notion of synergy, each object can shift and slide across the surface in a circular motion.”

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These zen-inspired clocks put the tranquil beauty of a Japanese zen garden on your tabletop!

Even considering the fact that the entire clock is in one color, the Masuno Clock from Wooj Design still captivates with its interplay of light and shade, created by the wonderful zen-garden-inspired texture on the clock’s face. Named after Shunmyo Masuno, the foremost living practitioner of Zen landscape architecture, the clocks explore simplicity, tranquility, and harmony, while still adding a dash of bright color to make them instantly eye-catching and hypnotic. Their teardrop-shaped design allows the clocks to be placed on tabletop surfaces, as well as be hung from walls!

“The Masuno Clock is our attempt to bring some of [Shunmyo’s] themes into physical form: asymmetry, harmony, and tranquility”, mention the designers at Wooj Design. “Though in some ways, a timepiece may seem antithetical to Zen themes, we hope that it allows you to see time as movement and flow, rather than rigid and linear — in line with Masuno’s views.”

The clocks come designed and assembled in USA, right out of Wooj Design’s BIPOC-owned, Brooklyn-based studio. Each clock’s intricately textured body is 3D printed out of recycled PLA in a choice between 3 unapologetically eye-catching colors – Coral, Cobalt, and Mustard, before being fitted with an American quartz movement, and finished off with brass hardware.

Designer: Wooj Design

The post These zen-inspired clocks put the tranquil beauty of a Japanese zen garden on your tabletop! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Japanese Zen Gardens + Art Deco are the inspiration behind this furniture and tableware collection!

Architect André Fu’s new Art Deco Collection features handcrafted homeware and furnishings inspired by ornate Art Deco silhouettes and the serenity of traditional Japanese Zen Gardens.

Inspired by the opulent style of Art Deco and the Zen gardens of Kyoto, modern architect André Fu designed a new collection of homeware he calls the Art Deco Garden Collection. Comprised of cabinets, armchairs, dining chairs, tables, room dividers, porcelain tableware, and wallcoverings, the Art Deco Garden Collection was designed following an involved research period that looked at many historical Japanese gardens, with an acute focus on the Tofukuji Temple Garden.

In close collaboration with De Gournay, a hand-painted wallpaper and fabric brand, each item that makes up the collection features a variety of formal Art Deco pattern work stylized to evoke the symmetrical and meditative qualities of raked sand found in Japanese Zen Gardens. The porcelain tableware gleam in white and are adorned with gilded gold line patterns hand-painted on each piece–the paintwork is so delicate, each brushstroke is visible and unique to the tableware. The room dividers and wallcoverings made from silk paper also feature silver and gold, hand-painted line patterns whose glittering finishes and laborious tracing pay homage to the gilded age of Art Deco and the sensuous fluidity of Japanese gardens.

Fu felt compelled to curate this collection of porcelain tableware, room dividers, and furniture in part as a means to incorporate the visual composition of nature into handcrafted homeware and furnishings. Reflecting on the collection’s original inspiration, Fu says, “My personal design approach is not just about combining styles together. Rather, it rests on an ability to navigate different cultures and reflect contemporary culture based on the inherent qualities of beauty itself, as opposed to just based on any one style.”

Designer: André Fu Living

The delicate handpainted patterns hearken the serene, laborious quality of raked Zen Gardens and the gleaming-in-gold personality of Art Deco.

Room dividers and wall coverings made from silk paper feature painted patterns from De Gournay.

Each piece of the Art Deco Garden Collection is inspired by Japanese Zen Gardens and the age of Art Deco. 

The porcelain tableware shimmers in white and is lined with hand-painted golden patterns reminiscent of the Art Deco movement.

Brass accents enhance each piece’s ode to Art Deco.

A Japanese Zen Garden is the inspiration behind this award-winning DJ console!

Today DJing has taken the world by storm, especially when it comes to the younger generation. More and more individuals are looking at it as a tangible career option, rather than a simple hobby or sidelined passion. However many of those interested in this field often end up with cold feet once they get an eyeful of the actual DJing equipment. A result of many complex technological innovations, DJing equipment isn’t the most aesthetic or user-friendly product out there. As a result, DJing seems more of a mystery than it actually is. The experience can be quite uncomfortable as customization of the user interface is quite impossible, and the equipment cannot be modified according to the personal taste of the DJ or genre.

However, designers Byoung Hoon Woo and Su hyun Bang decided to simplify the entire ordeal with their ‘Whiteout’, DJing equipment inspired by the Japanese garden style, Zen garden. A Zen garden is a simplistic garden style that utilizes rocks, sand, and gravel to recreate the essence of nature. It is believed to have ‘a calming effect’ on the mind. Drawing two of the main characteristics of a Zen garden; circulation and repetition, Woo and Bang have created a unique and neat form of equipment wherein a DJ can capture his musical world. The formative language of the Zen garden-inspired turntable helps to relieve the psychological burden or stress that can overcome DJs before they play a set. Much like the pebbles and stones found in a Zen garden, the DJ console consists of detachable knobs and faders. These knobs and faders allow the user to freely configure the console and modify it according to his/her taste or the genre they prefer. With fewer buttons, there is a wider space allowing more detailed manipulation, equalization, effector usage, and numerous other functions. The knobs and faders are portable! You can remove and store them in a dedicated case, and carry it around with you, allowing easy access to them anytime, anywhere.

The minimalism and crispness of the Zen garden design, the detachable knobs, and faders all come together to form a beautiful product, which looks exquisite even when not in use. Not to mention it was the winner of the Grand Prize of the K-Design Awards in 2019.  An aesthetic alternative to pre-existing DJ equipment, and not to mention highly functional and portable as well, this is one console that could even get me to try my hand at DJing!

Designers: Byoung Hoon Woo and Su hyun Bang