Art@Site www.artatsite.com Philippe Starck Kin No Unko
Artist:

Philippe Starck

Title:

Kin No Unko

Year:
1989
Adress:
Azumabashi, Sumida-ku
Website:
www.wikipedia.org:
The Asahi Beer Hall (a.k.a. Super Dry Hall, or Flamme d'Or) is one of the buildings of the Asahi Breweries headquarters located on the east bank of the Sumida River in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed by French designer Philippe Starck and was completed in 1989. It is considered one of Tokyo's most recognizable modern structures. The shape of the building is that of a beer glass, designed to complement the neighboring golden beer mug-shaped building housing the Asahi Breweries offices.
Kin no unko (?????) or "golden poo" is a Japanese cultural phenomenon. It is a symbol of good luck, as the name is a pun meaning "golden poo" and "good luck" in Japanese. By 2006, 2.7 million mobile phone charms in this form had been sold. The symbol, or something similar to it called unchi, appears as an emoji available on many mobile devices that support a Unicode expansion made in the summer of 2014. The charm is unusual outside of Japan but has been available from the English-language website ThinkGeek. The flame ornament atop the Asahi Beer Hall in Tokyo is called Kin no unko for its similarity.

www.flickr.com/photos/bobbex:
The Asahi Beer Headquarters is one of the most intriguing architectural wonders in Tokyo. It features two main buildings, the biggest building standing one hundred meters tall and resembling a giant beer jug complete with foam shaped white roof. The shorter building that is known as the Super Dry Hall is a black glass building in the shape of a beer glass, with an enormous golden flame shaped object perched on top.
It is noted for the Asahi Flame, an enormous golden structure at the top, said to represent both the 'burning heart of Asahi beer' and a frothy head.[2] The 360-tonne golden flame was made by shipbuilders using submarine-construction techniques. It is completely empty.
The Asahi Flame is sometimes colloquially referred to as "the golden turd" (kin no unko, ?????) and the Asahi Beer Hall itself as "poo building" (unko-biru, ?????).[