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Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo

Apr 23, 2007

Glass Office

Glass Office

About a month ago I linked to a piece from BusinessWeek looking at micro-homes. As a follow-up, David Cady — that’s Mr. Canned Coffee to you and me — sent me the photo you see here, with some details:

If you view the slideshow in the link, one of the pictures (8th frame) is of a small glass structure that looks an awful lot like the one in the (cell phone) photo I’ve attached below. It is tucked in a back street behind the Yaesu Book Center near Tokyo Station, and appears to be a design-related office. I always marvel at it when I walk by and wish I had a workspace like it. It’s such an efficient use of space, built above a parking lot. I bet the rent is a pittance.

The blurb on the slideshow says: “Sensing an opportunity, a factory automation company called SUS launched a new business offering cube-like aluminum frames called “tsubomi” that can be arranged into stand-alone homes or used as attachments to existing abodes. A 27 cu.m. (952 cu. ft.) attachment costs $17,000, and can be assembled in a single day.” I’m pretty sure the photo shows one of these “tsubomi.”

Yeah, sign me up for a Tsubomi office right away! I also made mention of the Tsubomi in my “On Design” column last year.

Category: Design

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One Response

  1. curtis says:
    April 25, 2007 at 8:52 am

    reminds me of the shipping-container inspired wallpaper (magazine) house from a few years ago. i love it! shy, private wife will need some convincing, though..

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Jean Snow lives and breathes design, pop culture, and gaming in Tokyo -- sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for the following online/offline publications: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Wired's Game|Life, PingMag, CNNGo, and The Japan Times. He also manages the gallery space at Cafe Pause.

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