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#23 |
Japanese revisiting "manufacturing" Continental Studio |
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# Lost craftsmanship of China |
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China has a long history of furniture manufacturing, as represented by furniture from the Min Dynasty, but from some time ago, the people began to be more focus on price wars, and the land became flooded with products of "cheap and bad" quality. This may be greatly attributed to the country's devastation by numerous wars and the Cultural Revolution, nevertheless, the tradition of Chinese furniture, which had influenced not only Japan, but also myriads of surrounding Asian countries, is now, for the most part, a mere shadow of the past. |
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Mr. Ryuji Ando from the Okazaki Lumber Company, has been directing lumber processing in a factory in China, and he thought, "a country that produced elaborate furniture in the past should be able to revive that craft. If this culture has waned in the country, than the craftsmanship of Japan, which imported such techniques from China and further refined it, should be re-imported." This lead to the establishment of a Chinese furniture brand, "Continental Studio." |
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The design producer of Continental Studio, Mr. Ryuji Ando. The initiator of this project, he travels not only in Japan and China, but also all over the world to get involved in design projects with myriads of designers and to take on new challenges. |
The initial phases of the project faced many difficulties. In Japan, new chairs do not rock with unevenness, and plates served at the restaurant are not chipped; we continued to live surrounded by "good quality (= decent things)." Although China is developing rapidly, however, it experiences fierce bipolarization; thus it is quite normal for products, which we would be consider defective to be in distribution. It seems to have been especially difficult to better the understanding of the necessity of great quality among their craftsmen at the workshop because the furniture producers themselves live without knowing the existence of good quality furniture. "We first had to lessen this gap in our ideology," explained Mr. Ando. |
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# Japanese furniture craftsman shakes the sleeping lion awake |
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Mr. Ando and Mr. Tai Adachi, who also had worked at Okazaki Lumber Company as a furniture production director, took on the role on site to give hands-on, leverage to furniture making in China. Mr. Adachi, a veteran craftsman who has come to know everything there is to know about woodwork having spent several decades working with the materials, has been involved in the project from day one; he has now spent 3 years with the Chinese craftsmen who work in the Continental Studio manufacturing workshops in Dalian. |
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"The first six months were very difficult (because of the difference in ideology as Mr. Ando mentioned above). However, they were fundamentally determined to grow and to proactively learn new techniques, and they were very deft with their hands." (Mr. Adachi) |
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Approximately 60 local craftsmen working at the workshops at Dalian. Having had long-standing relationships with people from Japan, the president, Mr. Kim is fluent in Japanese. He is actively involved in this project; this partially stems from having majored in wood processing in college. |
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"It took 3 years to come to where we are now. This has been possible due to Mr. Adachi's commitment; he has remained in Dalian on a long-term basis, and has thoroughly instructed us. But we're not satisfied with ourselves yet. We still have much to learn." (Mr. Kim) |
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Delicate nuances not present on the diagrams may only be expressed by craftsmanship. According to Mr. Adachi, even from an international standard, Japan's wood processing technology maintains the utmost level of precision. It requires fine-tuning at units of tenth of a millimeter. Even craftsmen with many years of experience at times cannot create items they are satisfied with, but the young craftsmen in the workshop aim to advance 1 step a day with the awareness to "make something better, to acquire new techniques tomorrow." |
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The average age of the young craftsmen at the Dalian workshop is 21-22 years. They plan to further expand the furniture division in the future. |
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| The picture on the right is of the 4 men who are the vital pillars of the workshop. From the right are Mr. Adachi, Mrs. Kim, President Kim, and the factory director from Continental Studio. |
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# The role of Gallery KOO |
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Gallery "KOO" serves as the bastion of Continental Studio's project. The gallery is a 10-minute walk from southern Shanghai's Xintiandi, a popular tourist spot with many hip restaurants. Although it is a short distance away from a popular part of town, the gallery is surrounded by extremely small mom-and-pop electronics repair and food shops, where local people walk by, eat, and take naps; it is a very local environment. They did a grand renovation on an old spinning mill in that area, and now it has become the gallery KOO, a very chic gallery which has a completely different atmosphere from what can be seen on the outside. It is an exhibition spot for mainly Continental Studio's productions, but it also provides a platform for conceptual exhibitions. |
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"It was the first design gallery in China, and in the beginning, only foreign (especially western) guests came to the gallery. But as time passed, local people began to accept us; recently, students who have interest in design have begun to visit KOO. There are some among them that speak passionately about the design concepts of each item on exhibition, or bring their sketches to ask our opinions. I feel that the young generation in Shanghai is quite interested in 'manufacturing" says Ms. Shihono Suga, who started working at KOO after graduating from a university in Shanghai. |
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Continental Studio is attempting to introduce an Asia originated design furniture, which will be globally accepted under the brand "KOO", with 2 main axis, communicating Dalian's "function" and to convey Shanghai's "design spirit". As such, Continental Studio conducted a design furniture competition at the end of the year last year in order to discover new talent. The winner's furniture design is being manufactured in the workshop at the moment, and it will be publicized and exhibited after the summer. |
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KOO's interior conceptually expresses the relationship between a house and its furniture. The contrast between the noisy streets outside and the interior of the gallery is quite interesting. The picture on the right is of Ms. Shihono Suga, KOO staff. Her and a local staff work in the gallery. |
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# Will the importance of manufacturing take root in China? |
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Art director, Mr. Kamwah Chan, won the first design furniture competition organized by KOO. Originally from Hong Kong, he was in charge of art direction of famous fashion magazine in Europe for 30 years. He then returned to Hong Kong, and has been living in Shanghai for 2 years. |
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"Europe is convenient and safe, and has a defined culture, but its power to challenge new things is deteriorating. China certainly has only a few concerts or galleries, and there are many inconveniences, and the disposition may differ greatly, but it is worth living in China as it was in Europe. It may be even more worthwhile in China." (Mr. Chan) |
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Mr. Chan is not only the art director of the Chinese edition of the magazine "ELLE", but he is also involved with architectural design. A manufacturing/producing professional, how does China's state of "manufacturing" look through his eyes? |
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"In China, there certainly are the talent and the drive to create things. However, if there is no ideology behind it, what is produced will not be any different from the generic imitation products of brands. What is important with respect to design is that there is ideology behind the processes to its completion. When it is recognized that there is value in such processes, and when this becomes rooted, people will realize the importance of manufacturing and will discover the true meaning of design." |
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Mr. Chan has had many experiences in various countries, and he has always been positive and challenging; that may be why he is investing in Shanghai, a city that attempts to propel itself forward just as he had done in the past. |
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| Mr. Kamwah Chan has been involved in manufacturing at the working-level all over the world. He is currently participating in the university construction project in Shanghai. |
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| Chinese kitchen is the concept of Mr. Chan's furniture entered in the KOO Competition. Mr. Chan modernized the idea to stack up small pieces of furniture, which come together to form a large multi-function furniture. The furniture he has designed will be publicized this fall. |
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# Communicating the importance of "things" from a cafe |
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Mr. Chan and Ms. Suga from KOO introduced to me, "le petit cafe" in the Shao Xing Rd. as "a place where you can discover a different new Shanghai." This cafe, which opened recently, has a simple interior, and was created by Ms. Noriko Tajima, who formerly worked in the product planning and development division of MUJI. |
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"I worked closely for many years at a Japanese manufacturer who had dealings with factories in China; but after all the years in "manufacturing" I began to question the social structure in which we produce and incessantly to consume" said Ms. Tajima. So she left her job, and went to China. Wishing to provide a place where she could communicate the "importance of things" in China, she opened her "le petit cafe." |
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Some of the furniture in the cafe was actually thrown away as trash. Ever-developing Shanghai, is marked with a construction rush; many new buildings are going up rapidly. But at the same time, many pieces of furniture are being disposed of. As a "small protest" to such a state of affairs, Ms. Tajima walked around the city, and collected disposed furniture little by little. "I wanted to prove that even if you don't spend a lot of money, with a little work and ideas, you could make great things." |
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The cafe is not a business, but a campaign she said. In the future, she plans to use this space to exhibit works of local artists who share the same awareness, or to conduct events. |
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If you go up the stairs next to the black chalkboard (or door?) to the second floor, you will reach "le petit cafe." The lunch menu of the day was an omelet or sandwich. |
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| Although I stopped by without prior notice, Ms. Noriko Tajima spoke about many things. |
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# Manufacturing is not a Creating Waste |
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One wrong step and "manufacturing" may become "creating waste." Japan has already overcome one big growth, and now it has become a society in which there is always "new waste." Compared to Japan, in China, which is still under development, there may be room for solutions. By augmenting awareness for "manufacturing," environmental organizations have begun various activities centering around the cities; thus it seems that awareness for the importance of things is arising. However, for China, with a population of 1.3 billion, it is not easy to communicate the rightful value of things evenly. Continental Studio, which aims for the first high-level manufacturing from China, and Ms. Tajima who wishes to rethink the concept of manufacturing; how will these small movements began by Japanese spread in the future?
We hope to slowly and surely watch these developments. |
| Report/Photographs: Hisashi Ikai |
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