img(height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2939831959404383&ev=PageView&noscript=1")

Move over, Shoji

Formed over 60 years ago in Osaka, Japan, door handle manufacturer Union Corporation looked to mark the decades with an installation at the recent Milan Design Week. Called ‘One Design – One handle’, this piece was designed by architect Tsuyoshi Tane. It covered the company’s history  and showcased the most ancient techniques for the production of artisanal handles with its cutting-edge range. Coming from the country that gave you the shoji screen, one wonders where the door handle figures in the country’s social history, but the show scotches any doubt, with samples of sand mould casting – ‘one of the most ancient fusion processes known to mankind’. It seems that in a more occidental, door-focused Orient, the firm’s cornered ‘80% of the high-end domestic market’.

Latest

9 July 2025 from 9am to 11.15am

RIBAJ Spec: Offices and Workspace Design webinar

24 June 2025

Designing for Neurodiversity webinar

In all, Emily Marshall may have photographed more than 1,000 homes – but this house in the South West, gradually tended to by a pair of families, stopped her in her tracks

This home in the South West, gradually tended to by a pair of families, stopped Emily Marshall in her tracks

This affordable and easy to install bathroom solution for residential and commercial projects doesn't compromise performance or quality

Affordable, easy to install bathroom solution doesn't compromise performance or quality

With scenography by OMA, the second edition of the event is a fascinating exploration of what temporary architecture could mean in the modern Middle East

With scenography by OMA, the event's second edition gives a boost to Saudi Arabia in the soft power game