We both studied different forms of art before becoming architects, although before enrolling university we both choose a more “rational” form of art pursuing our studies as architects further. During our university years our major interest were architecture and furniture design.
We are Tokyo-based architects, furniture designers. At Tatamu we would like to bring a flexible and sustainable alternative to people whose space is limited and moving places frequently. Small apartments, narrow offices, tiny shops; urban space is a vanishing, precious commodity. By 2050 two thirds of the earth’s population will live in cities. We have to fit increasingly more activities in a shrinking physical space. The main inspiration behind Tatamu are mobile and creative people like us, whose ideas are bigger than their room. We also found that moving in and out of tiny city apartments often involves the disposal of old furniture, since transportation is very costly; we need light, deployable, reusable furniture that is a joy to use.
As architects and furniture designers we design buildings from urban scale to pavilions, usually paying the utmost attention to detail until the last door handle.
We prefer projects that have the most impact on lives of people in need. Social housing or cultural spaces would be a good example with all the furniture included.
As architects and furniture designers we usually have private clients, the closest thing we designed for an actual company might be a scenery for a small artist theatre in Budapest.
Materiality is always at the core of any design idea we work on, each project is unique and requires a different solution. We are constantly on the look for new platforms and technologies to support our products.
After the very first look at a design one’s have a generic feeling about the object. After more detailed inspection, of usability, materiality and aesthetics usually this first impression proves right.
As designers we have the possibility to significantly improve the quality of life for every layer of society while protecting the environment with sustainable, but affordable solutions.
We designed experimental furniture for a traditional Japanese fabric manufacturer, these pieces were exhibited at their 100 years old factory to show the contrast between new and old.
As winners we are looking forward to the A’ Design Award Exhibition this year.
We have learned to live, work and socialize in tiny, vibrant, multi-functional spaces; our dream is to distill Tokyo urban lifestyle into everyday, functional and beautiful furniture. Furniture that adapts to, reacts to and interacts with our increasingly mobile lives.
We aim not have a certain “style” categorizing our design, not to limit ourselves from exploring new fields and ideas. Our approach to design starts with finding an interesting, unique problem that we aim to solve by a simple, elegant solution.
Each company is unique, requiring a different kind of presentation and communication. We hope to think that being flexible, listening to their specific needs is one of our great advantages.
Giving more opportunities to young, undiscovered designers can be of great benefit for both parties. Assigning projects to winners of public, anonymous competitions could have a positive impact on the quality of designs.
In general we like to work with a lot of physical models or 3D printed pieces besides sketches before we would have a detailed 3d model of the furniture we work on. In our experience this process helps us exploring the full potential of our ideas, not having a feeling of being "done" too soon.
We don’t really have a usual daily routine, for a period of weeks we can wake up early thinking about new ideas from the morning, while on other weeks we work until the morning.
Usually we use Rhino, V-ray and Grasshopper with the Adobe software for furniture design, for architectural projects we also work with Revit. Besides sketching of course we started to explore the advantages of 3D printing.
We have over 10 years of experience combined in the architecture and furniture design field. We both have worked for internationally well know architecture offices.
We both studied different forms of art before becoming architects, although before enrolling university we both choose a more “rational” form of art pursuing our studies as architects further. During our university years our major interest were architecture and furniture design.
In general we like to work with a lot of physical models or 3D printed pieces besides sketches before we would have a detailed 3d model of the furniture we work on. In our experience this process helps us exploring the full potential of our ideas, not having a feeling of being "done" too soon.
Curiosity might be the most important thing shaped us as designers. Exploring sometimes completely unrelated topics could result major breakthroughs in our projects, parallels can be drawn between many seemingly distinct fields.
Learning something new every day from different craftsmen and manufacturers shapes our thinking every day.
We would like to reach and improve the lives of as many people as possible with our products design at our firm Tatamu.
As architects and furniture designers we design buildings from urban scale to pavilions, usually paying the utmost attention to detail until the last door handle.
We prefer projects that have the most impact on lives of people in need. Social housing or cultural spaces would be a good example with all the furniture included.
We don’t really have a usual daily routine, for a period of weeks we can wake up early thinking about new ideas from the morning, while on other weeks we work until the morning.
After the very first look at a design one’s have a generic feeling about the object. After more detailed inspection, of usability, materiality and aesthetics usually this first impression proves right.
We both studied different forms of art before becoming architects, although before enrolling university we both choose a more “rational” form of art pursuing our studies as architects further. During our university years our major interest were architecture and furniture design.
As architects and furniture designers we design buildings from urban scale to pavilions, usually paying the utmost attention to detail until the last door handle.
We prefer projects that have the most impact on lives of people in need. Social housing or cultural spaces would be a good example with all the furniture included.
Good design significantly improves the quality of life for every layer of society.
Good design should also be affordable to it’s main audience, so definitely worth the investment.
We are interested in flexibility, to let our designs change with the needs of people. I think we are looking for this aspect throughout all of our design pieces.