Nicolas G. Hayek Center

With so much new, high-profile construction going on in Tokyo, it takes a special building to stand out as truly exceptional.
The Nicolas G. Hayek Center, the new headquarters for Swatch Group Japan (designed by Shigeru Ban) is just such a building. Located in the posh Ginza district and named after the company's founder, the building focuses on Swatch's luxury labels — Breguet, Blancpain, Glashütte Original, Jaquet Droz, Léon Hatot, Omega (plus a Swatch presence for the masses) — each with its own retail space.
Each shop has a hydraulic glass elevator that lifts you directly to the shop's entrance and doubles as a showroom, offering a glimpse of what to expect when it stops and you step out.
Add to that a wide-open exterior lobby and beautiful wall-mounted garden — environmentalism is a signature of Ban's work — and you end up with a shopping center that's truly ahead of the times.

via Times

Wall stair...

From the portfolio of Aaron Tang a proposal for a staircase made of simple mechanical hinges and pistons, that folds flush against the wall to allow easier access a lower space.
The Wall-Stair
Using simple mechanical hinges and pistons, this inventive staircase easily folds flush up against a wall to expand a lower space and/or to restrict access to an upper floor. The mechanics within the design allow any person to easily open or close the staircase from upstairs or downstairs. Inner pistons help slide the stairs back up swiftly to create a flush wall. The pistons also act as a gradient to lower each step individually after the stairs have been pulled out, creating a gradual, elegant wave-like pattern as the steps individually lock into place.
This project originated from a door project in which I was asked to define what a door was and could be. I defined a door as "an element of a wall that allowed passageway to another environment when opened and restricted passageway when closed."

Matteo Thun

Matteo Thun was born in 1952 in bolzano/alto adige, he studied under oskar kokoschka at the salzburg academy. in 1975 he was awarded his ph.d. in architecture at the university of florence, italy. in collaboration with ettore sottsass he grounded the sottsass associati and the memphis design group in 1981. between 1983 and 1996 he was professor of design at the university of applied arts in vienna. in 1984 he inaugurated his own design studio in milan.
This environmentally friendly, sustainable, modular private house, call Heidis, makes you live in close contact with nature and it´s ready in a matter of weeks.

Matteo Thun Portrait (2006)

Interview for Euromaxx on DW-TV.