Interview with KODAI IWAMOTO
I want to create the best possible products with the minimum materials and structure.
— Kodai Iwamoto
photography : Yoshikazu Shiraki, Tomohiko Ogihara
words : Reiji Yamakura/IDREIT
We interviewed Mr. Kodai Iwamoto, the designer who is active in Tokyo after he studied product design in ECAL/ École cantonale d'art de Lausanne in Switzerland, about furniture presented by 'dear sir/madam ', the new brand from LEGNATEC, as well as about “PVC HANDBLOWING PROJECT” that he continuously works on as his own artwork.
— Could you tell me about the concept of 'dear sir/madam', and your role in this?
'dear sir/madam' is specialised in online sales, and is the collection of furniture that can be “flat packed”, that can be assembled by the customers themselves.
I joined the project before its concept was finalised, and currently I am involved in it as both Director and Product Designer.
Before the development of furniture, there was a discussion session where we’ve received a request to have a collection of furniture that can be sold online, and from there we created the concept of the brand together. Our target customers are the ones who live in urban areas who move their home frequently.
Many people tend to buy new furniture when they move home, but we thought that if there are furniture that can easily be taken to the new home, then people won’t have to get stuck in the spiral of consumption. All our current collection of furniture can be easily assembled or disassembled by using just one wrench.
SANKAKU CHAIR for ‘dear sir/madam’. In this collection, all the furniture can be easily assembled or disassembled and flat-packed. photography : Yoshikazu Shiraki
TRESTLE LEG for ‘dear sir/madam’. The designer Iwamoto has designed a simple trestle by combining three pieces of plywood. photography : Yoshikazu Shiraki
— The concept of furniture that can be easily carried around is quite unique. Could you talk about the design of SANKAKU CHAIR?
This chair has component parts that were efficiently removed from the standard-sized plywood, and is designed to achieve higher level of comfort to sit on. I put lots of effort to meet all requirements, such as the comfortableness of its seat, its use of wasteless materials, its steady structure, and its beauty.
Also, since the chair is built with flat panels only, we paid close attention to the angle between the seat and the backrest to achieve the most comfortable angle. We designed everything, including its package, so that the chair can be flat-packed as small as possible, so that it can be sold online more easily.
— It must be difficult to control everything from efficient material use to making it into the final form. The TRESTLE LEG, for the table looks nice, too.
These are the legs with simple structure where 3 panels are inserted and fixed into a groove. We made sure the gap at the connecting part of the legs won’t stand out when the tabletop is placed on top of them.
For this collection of furniture that are made with plywood, we considered a few different ways to connect panels, but we ended up adapting the parts that allow its assembly and disassembly using just a single hexagonal wrench. The material used for this furniture is the lauan plywood with its surface covered with sliced veneer that’s made from 'Tamo' Japanese ash. We chose Japanese ash for this, so that the wood grains can still look beautiful even when you paint it with dark colour.
SUSPENDER SHELF is a simple shelf with a structure that is secured by a leather belt. The two shelves can be stacked together. photography : Yoshikazu Shiraki
— Which part of the overall design did you pay extra attention?
'dear sir/madam' provides basic items for the customers, so we leave it up to the customers to decide how they want to use our items. Maybe some want to place a cushion on the chair. We want them to arrange it however they want.
Not just specific to 'dear sir/madam', but whenever I design, I want to create something that can be the most useful item that uses only the minimum required materials and structure.
The same approach exists at the foundation of all the furniture designs. On top of the minimal designs, 'dear sir/madam' is also conscious of the sculptural forms. SANKAKU and the shelves SUSPENDER that are fixed with belts are my favourites.
PVC HANDBLOWING PROJECT was exhibited in CIBONE, a homeware and lifestyle store in Tokyo, from August to September 2020. photography: Tomohiko Ogihara
— Next, could you tell me about the concept of PVC HANDBLOWING PROJECT that utilise PVC pipes, the project where you’ve been continuously releasing your artworks since 2018?
Me working on these artworks stem from how I had my doubt about the way our values quite easily change over time. For example, all the things that are kept at museums today were just the tools for people from 1000 years ago, and I’m sure they would have never imagined their tools would be presented at museums in the future. Values can change easily, depending on how humans look at them. I felt a kind of “shallowness” of human beings in that sense, and since then I had been trying to come up with the way to increase the value of something that is initially regarded as worthless.
On the other hand, PVC pipes are known to designers as materials that are frequently used in creating their prototypes. I thought during the prototype process that maybe I can also expand the pipe, instead of just bending it only.
The feeling of discontent that I had over values in general, and the industrial products called PVC pipes that are available everywhere linked together, and as a result this PVC HANDBLOWING PROJECT was established.
Works of ‘HAND BLOWING PROJECT’ and production molds. These were first presented at the Milan Design Week 2018. photography: Kodai Iwamoto
— You’ve mentioned you create everything on your own, but what exactly do you do?
I use infrared heater to heat PVC pipe from top and bottom of it to make it softer, and then I pump air in from one side. Initially I was blowing air into it with my mouth, but nowadays I’m using air pump tube to pump in air. Actually, I tried out many different ways before I ended up using infrared heater to heat the pipes.
Initially I used a kerosene stove while spinning the pipe with hands to heat it evenly, but this was a nightmare during summer! The current method is much more efficient, but if I cannot heat the pipe evenly, it won’t become even-shaped, so I still keep adjusting the best timing to heat and pump in the air at the same time when I’m processing the pipes today.
— The materials you use are mass-produced products, but creating something with hands based on your past experience is very artful. How many different types of shape are there?
There are 3 different shapes altogether, including the one that uses a mould. Also, I am currently creating a prototype of a new shape with rib-shaped bumps on its surface.
— That is exciting! Lastly, could you tell me about all the responses you’ve received on your works up until today?
The media covered our works several times, and thankfully people from not only Japan, but from other countries as well find our works interesting. People who had a chance to physically hold it with their hands said they were surprised by its lightness. We also get invited more frequently to the exhibitions held by overseas art museums, and it wasn’t a solo exhibition, but we actually got to do the exhibition tours through Italy, UK and The Netherlands.
Also, we have a plan to do the exhibition until September 2020 as part of a popup event in CIBONE, and another plan on weekends to hold live art creation sessions at the store.
The manufacturing process by Iwamoto at CIBONE store. He brought a custom-made workbench with built-in infrared heater and created vases in public.
From artworks that were born as a result of him having a sense of discomfort with how humans decide the values, and his furniture designs optimised with our modern lifestyle, where he was involved with the initial step to create the brand concept, we were able to feel this designer’s strong determination to produce items with his own hands without getting caught with the existing methods.
KODAI IWAMOTO
Kodai Iwamoto (born in Kagoshima, Japan) starts his study of product design at Kobe Design University in Japan. While a bachelor's degree, he joined an educational design project DESIGN SOIL and participated Milan Design Week. In 2016, After graduating master course in ECAL (École cantonale d'art de Lausanne) in Switzerland, he moved to Tokyo and has been working with some furniture brands both in Japan and abroad.
