norwegian wood slipcase
This slipcase inspired by Haruki Murakami’s novel “Norwegian Wood”, was designed and fabricated as part 1 of a 2-part design problem.
The design problem (written for my “Architecture & Furniture” students) looked at the possibility of designing and fabricating a piece of furniture or functional object for a fictional architectural space described in a work of fiction.
As a warm up exercise, I asked students to design and fabricate a slipcase inspired by the work of fiction they’d chosen to read in anticipation of the design problem.
I chose to use the original 2-part version of “Norwegian Wood” sold in Japan to student's studying English. I’d discovered the existence of these 2 little books while researching Mr. Murakami’s novel. Unavailable in the United States, the books were ordered from a small bookshop in Japan.
By coincidence, I had just finished reading a book about the history of books which described how books used to be chained to library bookshelves because of their rarity and value. The idea that books needed to be secured was intriguing.
Haruki Murakami describes in detail the very personal lives of his characters. I imagined that these characters would not want the intimate details of their lives made available to just anybody. Combination locks give Murakami’s fictional characters the option of providing the combination to these locks, and subsequently the details of their lives, only to those readers they choose to share their stories with.
The design problem (written for my “Architecture & Furniture” students) looked at the possibility of designing and fabricating a piece of furniture or functional object for a fictional architectural space described in a work of fiction.
As a warm up exercise, I asked students to design and fabricate a slipcase inspired by the work of fiction they’d chosen to read in anticipation of the design problem.
I chose to use the original 2-part version of “Norwegian Wood” sold in Japan to student's studying English. I’d discovered the existence of these 2 little books while researching Mr. Murakami’s novel. Unavailable in the United States, the books were ordered from a small bookshop in Japan.
By coincidence, I had just finished reading a book about the history of books which described how books used to be chained to library bookshelves because of their rarity and value. The idea that books needed to be secured was intriguing.
Haruki Murakami describes in detail the very personal lives of his characters. I imagined that these characters would not want the intimate details of their lives made available to just anybody. Combination locks give Murakami’s fictional characters the option of providing the combination to these locks, and subsequently the details of their lives, only to those readers they choose to share their stories with.