Otaku is a bathtub made of pressed woven veneer sheet. A process which was inspired by traditional boat building techniques and is based on nowadays manufacturing technologies. This project emphasizes on a ‘micro-cosmos’ of relations between sailing and bathing – states of mind, and between the boat and the bathtub as functional entities. This concept formulates an almost paradoxical analogy, from-which the ‘inside-out’ theory has emerged, the concept of washing in a bathtub is completely the opposite from the concept of floating in a boat – in all senses, the inside becomes the outside. Hence, the ‘outside’ of the boat became the ‘inside’ of the bathtub. The Vietnamese basket boats made using interwoven bamboo and waterproofed by using resin and coconut oil were what inspired Tal Engel to create Otaku. The wire frame, produced out of thin metal profiles, creates an iconic shape which is light, yet strong.
Info and images © Tal Engel
