DESIGN TALKS plus - Season 10 / Year 2023
Season 10 / Year 2023
Episodes
Defying Common Sense
Architect Tanijiri Makoto is known for his off-the-wall designs that both innovate and inspire people to rethink architectural conventions. Besides designing houses and business facilities, he also takes on landscaping, product design and various other projects. At the core of his thinking is a desire to make something that has never been done before. Venture into a world where the unconventional gives rise to new designs!
Future of Local Textiles
Fujiyoshida in Yamanashi Prefecture is a textile town benefiting from clean water from Mt. Fuji. In 2022, it held FUJI TEXTILE WEEK, a paean to the art of fabric. Artists from Japan and abroad collaborated with local textile makers to explore the potential of textile design through exhibits all around the town. Explore how this town is preparing to support its local industry into the future!
Design Hunting in Shimane
Ancient myths and legends abound in Shimane prefecture. Top quality minerals including silver, copper and iron have long been found here, hence the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and the development of tatara iron. Shimane's rich minerals and natural landscape have inspired an array of regional designs over millennia. Join us on a design hunt in Shimane!
Inspiration from Traditional Craftsmanship
Designers today are torn between the constant demand for something new and the requirements of sustainability. Some young creatives are turning to traditional craftsmanship and shining a new spotlight on old practices. The pandemic and the rejection of mass production, consumption and disposal has led to a new appraisal of the value of objects. Fashion designer Kishida Tomohiro explores young creators inspired by traditional craftsmanship and adding modern sensibilities to create new items and new aesthetics.
New Standards
A standard classic commands a steady demand regardless of passing trends. In this episode, we explore designs can speak to the changing times but also appeal over the long-term. Such items hold onto historic threads while also drawing on necessary technology, humor or versatility. Product designer Suzuki Keita explores a wide variety of everyday items and examines the products users will consider the new standards of the future.
Tokyo City Streets
Cities around the world are reexamining their infrastructure. In response to the UN SDGs and environmental issues, cities are turning away from car-focused planning to models that put people first. Tokyo is part of this trend. New ideas and strategies are looking at streets. Architect Chiba Manabu rediscovers the charm of Tokyo's city streets and explores new designs for transport infrastructure and urban living.
Evolving Bonsai
Bonsai recreate vast natural landscapes in the confines of a plant pot. This unique Japanese culture is known by its original name around the world, and for many young people has become a byword of cool Japanese culture alongside manga and anime. From pieces painstakingly shaped over centuries to cutting-edge artworks shaped around new ideas, bonsai has an extraordinary diversity that's won fans at home and abroad. Rising international star and bonsai gardener Hirao Masashi explores the evolving world of bonsai.
Recently Updated Shows
Home and Away
Home and Away follows the lives and loves of the residents in Summer Bay, a fictional seaside town of New South Wales. The series initially focuses on the Fletcher family – Tom, Pippa and their five foster children, Frank Morgan, Carly Morris, Lynn Davenport, Steven Matheson and Sally Fletcher – who relocated from the city and moved into the Summer Bay House, where they took on the new job of running the caravan park, and eventually took in a sixth foster child, Bobby Simpson.
Kitchen Nightmares
Chef Gordon Ramsay of Hell's Kitchen fame is back, and this time he's hitting the road, exposing restaurants that are barely staying afloat.
Poker Face
Poker Face is a "mystery-of-the-week" series following Natasha Lyonne's Charlie Cale, who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. She hits the road with her Plymouth Barracuda and with every stop encounters a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can't help but solve.
Paranormal Caught on Camera
Some of the most amazing, eye-opening and downright scary paranormal videos from around the world are featured as a panel of experts break down the footage and analyze what exactly the eyewitnesses captured.
Amandaland
Following three series of the Merman-produced, BAFTA award-winning series Motherland, a brand-new spin-off, Amandaland, is coming to the BBC, focused on Amanda.
Post her divorce, Amanda has had to downsize and up sticks to South Harlesden, or as the Estate Agent calls it SoHa (definitely not the area around Wormwood Scrubs prison).
With both Manus and Georgie now at secondary school, Amanda has to try and get her head around raising teenagers, dealing with modern motherhood horrors like teenage drinking, fake Instagram accounts and eco anxiety. Not even a woman as certain of her parenting as Amanda can deal with these nightmares alone.
Then there's Amanda's mother Felicity who is constantly around, and completely in denial that she is, in fact, lonely. Theirs is a slightly unhealthy co-dependent relationship based on backhanded compliments and veiled snipes about her new home.
After a brief spell of freedom, Anne is sucked back into being Amanda's minion to help her navigate the social scene with the other parents at the children's new school. Thank God for Anne.