InBetween Book

In an initial approach to the creation of a book, I investigated the basics of Japanese book joinery. We needed to make design connections from the book we were creating and the house we studied in our previous stages of the project. In order to devise a solution to this problem I took the ideology of Japanese book binding techniques, and further stretched them into the tectonics behind Japanese origami in a materials connection to the paper of the book, and Japanese joinery in the way the binding would hold them together.

The home which I studied was modeled around a set of five singular cottages cohesively stitched together through the use of their space in-between and the connection of their roof structures. In response to this my book has five separate pages, each of which unravels from an identical series of folds, designed intentionally to interact the user and the pages themselves. When the book is opened the pages are turned into loose-leaf, free to be arranged as you please, much like the house would be without the presence of its unifying roof. Which brings me to the ideology behind the cover and binding. With intentions of replicating the folded characteristics of the pages, while seamlessly tying it’s contents together, the cover itself features a series of folds while being held closed by a single stab bound point.

Looking back upon my solution to this step of the project, there’s definitely space for improvement. This space seems to lie mostly within the cover. The cover’s complexities detract from the complexity within the page design, and creates a certain disconnect from the relation to the simple unification of a series of spaces. With a more primitive covering tactic, the pages could have a greater impression upon the piece as a whole.