Japan – Tokyo
Tokyo-based designer Daisuke Yamamoto offers an alternative approach to architecture and product design. His aim? To question the obvious, through different ways of researching and developing.
Through this innovative approach, Yamamoto integrates diverse materials and know-how into his design based on stories hidden beneath the surface, combining functionality with environmental awareness. A delightful dialogue between dystopia and utopia, seeking to enrich and question unlimited possibilities.
The proof is in FLOW, a seating series that creates a new life cycle for materials, while minimising industrial waste. This project began with a realisation: building materials, even if recycled, are often disposed of to make way for new construction.
“Mass consumption is generally treated according to the ‘think, build, waste’ pattern. However, in order to create a sustainable society, we take the opposite approach to the design process: ‘Waste, think, recreate.’ By integrating this additional feature into the design process, to recreate allows us to envisage a new circulation of resources […] in order to take our future into account,” explains the designer.
With this in mind, Daisuke Yamamoto’s team turned the spotlight on LGS (Lightweight Gauge Steel), a widely used construction material, particularly in structural systems. These post-demolition construction elements were then recovered and reused to create elegant pieces of furniture, with a minimum number of components.
Connoisseurs will easily recognise Enzo Mari’s Autoprogettazione concept in these silhouettes. Initiated in the 1970s, this Italian designer’s project consisted of a series of plans that individuals could use to create their own furniture, and thus gain a real grip on their environment. Yamamoto’s deconstruction project is no different.
“Our mission is to activate discussions about how we deal with discarded materials in our ‘scrap and build’ society. It’s a place to reinvent, to ask whether these materials really need to be disposed of or whether they can be used and brought back to life with new meaning.”
Lisa Agostini