Layer Stool by Fuma Fujiwara is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 Silver A' Design Award in Furniture Design Competition Category.
SilverFurniture· 2023
Layer Stool
Client: Fujiwara Fuma
Silver A' Design Award Winner in Furniture Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #150916The Design
About Layer Stool
The project started with making furniture out of small-diameter trees and scrap wood. Wood in Okinawa is felled due to natural disasters and road expansion. However, in recent years, road expansion has decreased due to environmental considerations, so wood is also shrinking. To continue making Okinawa furniture, it was necessary to use small materials. Therefore, the Layer stool were created by combining various types of wood. It is made from upcycled waste. This design proposes a new value by reconstructing the waste material from Okinawan wood into blocks.
The Recognition
About the Silver A' Design Award
Layer Stool is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. Layer Stool is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Layer Stool is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.
Where to Get It
Sustainable Japanese Furniture Design
We create custom furniture that tells the story of Japan's natural heritage. Specializing in sustainable design using reclaimed Okinawan woods, we transform local materials into functional art pieces. Each commission honors traditional craftsmanship while addressing modern environmental challenges.
Discuss Your ProjectBehind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- This project used small-diameter trees and scrap wood to make furniture. Wood in Okinawa is felled due to natural disasters and road expansion. Large pieces of wood are needed to make furniture. Therefore, I made woodcuts by combining a wide variety of woods. They are made by upcycling discarded materials. This design proposes a new value for the colorful "Okinawa tree".
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Width 640 mm x Depth 380 mm x Height 500 mm
- Tags
- stool, furniture, Okinawa, End material
- Production Technology
- To continue making Okinawan furniture, we need a way to use materials without waste. Therefore, we collected small pieces of wood and trees with small diameters discarded at lumber shops and workshops.
Seat : Camphor tree, Melia azedarach, Magnolia compressa, Castanopsis sieboldii, Acacia confusa, Pinus luchuensis, Tetradium glabrifolium, Trema orientalis, Podocarpus macrophyllus.
Legs : Acacia confusa.
Finish: beeswax. - Design Challenge
- Layers are created by stacking trees. Those layers are usually horizontal. To show all the trees on the surface, I was inspired to express this by making the layers slanted. Creating the diagonal layers was the most challenging part. The diagonal layers created beautiful curves. I also tried to find a way to combine light and dark colors in the wood combination.
- Research
- Okinawa is Japan's southernmost archipelago and was once called the Ryukyu Kingdom. Okinawa has long had a different culture from Japan's main island, and other types of wood have been used. Twenty years ago, trees with large diameters were circulating in Okinawa, but recently the diameter of the trees in circulation is about 35 centimeters, and the material is shrinking. Finding a way to utilize small materials was necessary to sustain Okinawan furniture production, so the research began.
- Inspiration
- I live in Okinawa, an island in the south of Japan. Okinawa is known as the only subtropical region in Japan and has unique vegetation and culture. Many kinds of trees live on the island. Many types of trees are unique to the island, and I was surprised that there were many characteristic features, such as the trees color, smell, and texture. I made this furniture using nine kinds of Okinawan trees to let people know about Okinawan trees.
- Project Duration
- The project started in Okinawa in January 2023. The first deliverable was completed in March 2023 and exhibited at the Tokyo International Furniture Fair (IFFT).
- Operation Flow
- The hand-carved seat has a gentle slope. The indentation in the center of the chair gently fits your waist. The seat and legs of the chair can be disassembled. It is compact and portable and can be transported in flat-pack packaging. When assembling, it can be manufactured immediately just by inserting the legs.
- Image Credits
- [Image # 1: Photographer Fuma Fujiwara, Layer Stool, 2023]
[Image # 2: Photographer Fuma Fujiwara, Layer Stool, 2023]
[Image # 3: Photographer Fuma Fujiwara, Layer Stool, 2023]
[Image # 4: Photographer Fuma Fujiwara, Layer Stool, 2023]
[Image # 5: Photographer Fuma Fujiwara, Layer Stool, 2023]
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