Sakura Cyclone Table by Tomoaki Kageyama Wins the Silver A' Design Award in Furniture Design

Tomoaki Kageyama honored for furniture design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 18, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Silver A' Design Award in the Furniture Design category for Sakura Cyclone Table by Tomoaki Kageyama. The recognition forms part of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The Silver A' Design Award Explained

The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.

About Sakura Cyclone Table

This is a low table made of molded cherry plywood. This table usually looks like a large cherry tree growing on the earth. On the other hand, when turning on the light, the cherry blossom blooms in a shadow and makes the space brilliant. It is a table that turns an evening into a special time. Cherry blossom is an important symbol in Japan. But cherry blossoms bloom for only about one week of the year. This table is designed with the fleeting brilliance of the Cherry blossom tree.

About Tomoaki Kageyama

He is an associate professor at the Nagoya City University Graduate School of Design and Architecture. He specializes in product design and his research themes are “imagination margins” and “benefit of inconvenience. After working at ND Design Inc. as a designer of mobilities, lifestyle equipment, furniture, etc., he will become a lecturer at the Graduate School of Design and Architecture, Nagoya City University in 2019, and an associate professor in 2023. M.F.A. in Design, Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music.

Award Record

This recognition makes Tomoaki Kageyama a winner of 1 A' Design Award.

About the A' Furniture Design Award

The A' Furniture Design Award is an international furniture competition recognizing good furniture designs by best furniture designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to furniture designers, product designers, industrial design studios and furniture brands from all countries. Entries typically include chairs, tables, sofas, beds, cabinets and shelves. Awarded furniture designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/furniture

About A' Design Award & Competition

A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://designers.org/164534
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/164534
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!164534
Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/359205

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Sakura Cyclone Table
Function: Table
Category: Furniture Design
Discipline: Industrial Design
Industry: Furniture & Home
Colors: Dim Gray, Dark Slate Gray, Light Gray, Gainsboro and Saddle Brown
Images: 5

The Recognition

Laureate: Tomoaki Kageyama
Country: Japan
Recognition: Silver A' Design Award
Edition: 2024 - 2025
Design ID: #164534

Design Details

Unique Properties: This design proposal is a low table made of molded cherry plywood. The unique point of this table is the design of the shadow that falls from the table. This table usually looks like a large cherry tree growing on the earth. On the other hand, when turning on the light, the cherry blossom blooms in a shadow and makes the space brilliant. It is a table that turns an evening into a special time.
Inspiration: This table is a conceptual design in my lab. I tried to incorporate Japanese essential aesthetics into a Western furniture table. Cherry blossom is an important symbol in Japan. But cherry blossoms bloom for only about one week of the year. Japanese people are fascinated by the momentary brilliance of cherry blossoms. I designed it with the fleeting brilliance of the Cherry blossom tree.
Research: I explored the essential elements of Japaneseness in order to create a table that is uniquely Japanese. In the process, I came across the famous book “In Praise of Shadows” by the famous Japanese classic writer, Junichiro Tanizaki. Through this book, Tanizaki showed that since ancient times, Japanese people have been conscious of the shadows behind light and have found a sense of beauty in these shadows. Therefore, we designed this table based on the hypothesis that we could create essentially Japanese furniture by designing the shadows that fall from the table, which modern people are usually unaware of.
Challenge: It was difficult to consider the configuration of parts to realize that only when the pendant light is turned on at night a shadow falls and cherry blossoms bloom. I created several scale models and conducted many experiments to check the shadows by turning on the lights. Then, I realized this idea using the construction method of diagonally mating R500mm curved wood.
Realization and Technology: The furniture is made of Molded plywood. Detailed mating is the key to designing accurate shadows. I created a mechanism to adjust the angle of the plywood installation with wires, allowing fine adjustment of the falling shadows.
Operation and Interaction: During the day, users relax with a cup of tea or a book at the table, where they can feel the warmth of the wood. At night, they can spend a special time drinking a glass of wine on the table, which becomes as brilliant as a cherry tree in full bloom thanks to the shadows cast by the room light. We envision that this table will also used in restaurants or pubs.
Project Duration and Location: The project started in 2022 in Nagoya Japan and finished at the end of 2023.
Specifications: The furniture was made in a workshop in the Hida region in Japan, a famous furniture production area in Japan. The size of this table is H400 mm*D400 mm, W400mm.
Keywords: Table, Cherry blossom, Sakura, shadow