19.07：rainy season finally started

Catalogs

When I started in architectural design, printed catalogues were absolutely necessary. 

They were useful and indispensable to know about new, currently available products, help me to judge the pros and cons of each item, and anyway, to find the best furnishings, fittings, and materials for my project.  And that was an unexciting, yet important part of design work for a small design office: to get catalogues from companies and put them in order on the shelf. 

But I remember well from that time, especially toward the housing field, there was a critical opinion and the question: "Is it acceptable for true “design” work to utilize ready-made products?” 
In spite of the critique, that era elevated the status of those houses, even though they were wholly ready-made and provided by house-makers.  The same was true as well for TATEURI, which were built to quite mainstream standards and by only one company’s catalogue.  

Traditionally, making houses has been a craft of original and creative skill, so it is extremely valuable to have artisans make a house by hand one piece at a time.  Today’s architecture is the collaboration of handmade and high quality standards, and that quality is in the architect’s hands.  It is necessary to develop new technology, and make the reflected products, and keep the high quality of contemporary architecture.

But on the other hand, if development is over-emphasized handmade work will disappear, remaining only in local areas.  Industrialized architecture and handmade architecture both are irreplaceable and must be connected and raised up in our society. 

Sorry for the long prologue.....

For my last renovation project, it was extremely important to find good products, but unfortunately I had started to consolidate my office for moving and I had already scrapped many printed catalogues that I had gathered with tremendous labor.  Now, of course, is the age of web-catalogs, but at the time I guessed it would be no problem to throw away my printed catalogues. 

But I failed.

Can you find or choose the best item with a web-catalog?

Well, it is convenient when the company's name is not clear; I can link to similar products.  Nevertheless, it’s very hard to look at the monitor for long periods of time, and in addition, Adobe Flash Player is tedious and cumbersome to read. 

So I began to gather printed catalogs again, and I am losing vacant space on my book-shelf again. 

19.07.04