More Good Design

You see corrugated sheet metal barns and warehouses all over the place out here in the "countryside." Usually they are in some state of rustiness and/or dilapidation. Utilitarian structures to the extreme, they are fairly quick and cheap to put up; fairly quick and cheap to tear down.

Normally I pass by without giving them a second look. But this one was special. This one had style.

A simple wooden door — made from cedar I'm guessing, the hills are lined with the stuff — and everything square, level and true.

Echosquirrel likes the tiny recessed handles. I like the ensemble. The flimsy and the solid existing together. A craftsman's paean to simplicity.

Good Design

For the same reasons I'm attracted to Apple and Ryoanji — clean lines and uncluttered spaces — this magazine caught my eye in the local bookstore:

Each month the publishers explore a different theme, animal or vegetable — this month it's turnip, next month it's lettuce — following the thing from seed to plate.

Kabu opens with fire — farmers in some areas burn hillsides to grow the crop — with some really nice pics of local farmers working in the ash.

The numbers tend to sell out quickly, and I doubt it's available widely abroad, unless you happen to live near a Kinokuniya.

Next issue レタス　coming out mid-March.