Is white a color? Akane Moriyama thinks so. Sure, it’s not a color in Photoshop, but in space there are many tones of white, and that includes grays. She often uses white. Japanese architects and her clients like white. She works with architects a lot because she wanted to use textiles in architecture. Originally Japanese, Akane went to Stockholm to study. She could be more experimental there. She’s fascinated by the color of the sky (her name Akane even means ‘Color of the sunset’) also noticed a difference in color of the sky, and the different blues you see due to the slow sunset. The color changes are very slight. This inspired the Blue Brick (seen below) that has three gradients of blue dye and nine hue variants over 729 pieces of fabric.
Transparant materials are prevalent in her designs. Overlapping colors in space makes an endless combination of colors possible. And the transparency changes the light in the space. It’s Akane’s intention actually to color the space, and transparant materials are best to achieve that. Using layers actually increases the light activity letting one piece give you different colors. What also good about textile is that it can easily be changed. It’s flexible enabling her to add new qualities to a space.
For a children’s room Akane created the curtains below. The curtains can be changed to create new combinations and new colors in the space.
A client had asked for a way to close off a window but still letting natural light through. Akane created a curtain of several separate transparant layers, the Eight Layers Screen. Using separate layers let’s the curtains and light move with any breeze that occurs when people walk past.
