Archive for the 'KIDI' Category

Coffee is the most loved drink in world history. In fact, trade of coffee is ranked first economically among all the farm products. The heaviest coffee drinkers in the world are Finnish who drink more than 9 liter per year. By seeing so many coffee shops on every city corner we can know that it’s not only the Finnish that really love coffee. One of the reasons why coffee is loved so much throughout the world is the famous “addictive” substance included in coffee, Caffeine. But it is not only the addictive effect that makes people love coffee. One of the reasons can be its variation. Coffee has so many variations that can suit many situations of daily life.

 Coffee is made from beans. The first step of making coffee is to roast the beans. Next, the beans are crushed by a coffee mill. After that, there are several different ways of brewing coffee, using the roasted and crushed beans. The most common and basic method used in Japan is drip brewing. In this method the hot water is poured over the crushed beans and the force of gravity to pull the hot water through the filter paper to remove the chunks from coffee. This is very easy method that doesn’t require any special technique or machine. Another popular coffee is the so-called instant coffee. All need to do to make an instant coffee is to pour hot water over the magical powder. These easy methods have made coffee available in most of home, and they made it even possible to drink in a hotel room.

 There are several other methods of brewing coffee, but these methods rather need special equipment. Vacuum coffee (know as “siphon coffee” in Japan) is a method that requires special machine, and uses the air pressure to pull the coffee through the filter. Since vacuum coffee is brewed under higher pressure than usual drip coffee, it is said that coffee can be made stronger in this way. Some coffee fans and local coffee shops use this method. Another well-known method is espresso. Espresso is made by a special machine, which called an espresso machine. Espresso is made under high pressure (9atoms), and so, the brewing can be done in a very shot time – less than 30 seconds. Under such a high pressure, espresso can be made stronger than vacuum coffee. Espresso is the most popular method to brew coffee in Europe for years. Recently it has becoming very popular in Japan too. Many new coffee shop chains, like the Starbucks Coffee, provide espresso and have rapidly spread over the country.

Methods of brewing are not the only variations of coffee drinks. Coffee is sometime drunk black, witch means without adding, but often it is drunk after adjusting its taste by adding various ingredients. The most common would be sugar, milk, and cream, Café latte and café au lait are made by adding milk into coffee or espresso, and they are often drunk at tea-time. Steamed milk is probably the most favored addition to coffee in many coffee shops. Cinnamon is sometimes added by favor. Overall, many special flavored syrups, such as vanilla, maple, hazelnut and so on are provided by coffee shops. Of course, drip coffee with cream is the best match for morning toasts; wile a strong espresso will do after fatty food.

 Coffee is the most loved drink throughout the world. One of the reasons can be its variation. Everybody can brew and drink coffee very easily with some simple tools, almost anywhere, and even every day. Coffee lovers can drink their own favorite coffee by using their own equipment. People who don’t those can go to a coffee shop and drink ¬a cup. There are so many ways to adjust the taste of coffee in order to make it suit the situation. Frappuccino can be a snack itself, and strong black coffee e will “sharpen up”. Coffee can be drunk daily and also at special days, and in every aspect of human lives. A little kid will like a super-sweet coffee with plenty of mile. Older men will drink a cup of double espresso. Coffee is for everybody, from young to old, and for every occasion, from morning to night. And that is probably the reason why coffee has been loved for centuries and centuries.

 

If anyone who is Japanese is given a chance to go to Parsons, the school of design in NY, he would notice the drawings on the wall or other playful works in hallways such as stickers on the floor stand out. Surely, that’s what people don’t see at schools in Japan. The fact probably makes many people notice that student’s behavior toward the environment is different in each country and it’s because of the big cultural difference in terms of education.

  In Japan, teachers tend to be very strict. They try to fit students into a group and make them look good and identical. Especially, until high school, the education is very strict. For example, in order to raise the image of the school, students are not allowed to dye their hair or they always have to wear their uniform exactly the way it’s decided and sometime even the socks are specified. The typical style of building is that it is made of concrete with small amount of low saturated or cold colors. Therefore, because of pressure from teachers, students have little power to insist and they never think of make the environment creative since the school itself has cold and tough image.

  On the other hand, in US, education is more freely done compared to Japan. Because students are from different background, each student has different hair color and there are not as strict rules to be seen fine and similar. The building of the schools also has more friendly and open feeling. For instance, lockers tend to be very colorful. Occasionally, even the small parts such as frame of the door with bright colors make the atmosphere livelier. Students are not afraid to insist their opinions and feel freer to ask for permission to do some activity.

At last, the drawing on the wall gives people a feeling of fun or excited. Also, as a design school, it is good to see student’s ideas and works everywhere in the building. Japan and US have very different style of education but one thing that is clear is the US educational style encourages the students to be more active and make the environment more creative.

Designing a package or a product related to smoking is getting more difficult and important especially today.

  Governments in many countries manage to reduce the number of smokers by restricting a visual advertisement of tobacco. For example, a tobacco package should have “Health Warning” by words or pictures. For example, the package in EU countries must be labeled with both warning sentences (like “Smoking kills” “Tobacco smoke can harm your children”) and a picture associated with bad results occurred by smoking. And these warnings should occupy 30~40% of the package. In Australia, the percentage is 90%. In Japan, the restriction for tobacco package is more moderate. It doesn’t have to have a picture for warning. It related to the fact that The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan is not responsible for smoking problem, but Department of the Treasury is, which is also the top shareholder of Japan Tobacco Inc. The money issue is more involved in smoking problem in Japan.

 Also, most major cities provide some kind of regulation on smoking in public. It’s not surprising to prohibit smoking in public buildings, restaurants or cafés. In Tokyo, Japan, even smoking in the street is not permitted in some area. According to this serious situation for smoking, it seems that ashtrays in public are beginning to look like a part of surrounding environment. The picture is of an ashtray in the street in NY. It doesn’t look like an ashtray but some architectural stuff. It has just little two holes. So people don’t have to see dirty cigarette butt and smoke doesn’t spread. It’s important to contrive ways for smoker and non-smoker to live comfortable as well as regulate smoking.

Designing a tobacco package or a public ashtray is of course for protecting people’s health or keeping the city clean, but also they are the devices for the governments of each countries or cities to show and appeal how serious they wrestle with smoking problem.

People want new sight but also keep traditional buildings in their city. How do architects solve this problem? There is a good example in N.Y. It is the store of COMME des GARÇONS built by Future Systems in 1998. The Chelsea area where the store is located is surrounded by many galleries.

They didn’t destroy the exterior of the old building and utilize it to the store effectively. Its exterior is made by old bricks and they didn’t change except for the entrance. The entrance and interior are totally new. They are very futuristic and attractive so it might surprise people who are walking through the front of this store but it works effective way because of the area this store is located is Chelsea. There are many art pieces in the windows which attract people. In order to give the strong impressions to people, the contrast of old bricks exterior and futuristic interior woks well. For the company, the building is not just a space they sell their products, but they also use it as an advertising tool. For designers especially fashion designers, their stores are pavilions for their exhibitions. COMME des GARÇONS always makes people surprise because of their way to express their creation. So this building has a big part of their creation because it makes people surprise.

In N.Y. there are a lot of buildings built more than 100 years ago. Some people want to keep the atmosphere itself, not complete building and interior because people care about sight so they made success to keep a balance between the needs of people who want to keep city sight, their client and make the Architecture unique.