UTSUWA!

Project Utsuwa is a multinational open network of professionals from various fields with a strong appreciation for Japanese culture, traditional craftsmanship and innovation. With a minimalistic philosophy our goal is to reinvent a traditional Japanese room (washitsu 和室) for the purpose of building a real life and digital network of creatives and innovators from different fields.

A Japanese room-washitsu 和室, unlike western a room is strapped of its function and therefore invites its user to give it one. With such minimalistic philosophy and minimalistic design, washitsu offers us an ideal space for our goal of achieving a network where art, craftsmanship and science tangibly intersect. Reducing washitsu into portable modules which can be extended and multiplied by demand, and also assembled and disassembled easily, we create a framework for our goal. The idea behind the reinvention of a Japanese room into a portable framework is to literally offer the frames to all sorts of creatives and innovators from all over the globe to fill them with their work, thereby creating a real life creative social network..

The entire creation, as well as the final product, will be documented and presented at an exhibition which aims not only to showcase the process and connect the artisans, designers, architects and possible customers, but also to showcase people that are interested in the product of this unique cultural exchange.