ARM Chair/FLOW by DAISUKE YAMAMOTO
Sustainable Project
ARM Chair/FLOW | DAISUKE YAMAMOTO | photography : Masayuki Hayashi
DESIGN NOTE
Armchair made only from LGS.
Concept for reclaiming shop interior materials
Minimal design, allowing assembly at the demolition site
photography : Masayuki Hayashi
words : Reiji Yamakura/IDREIT
Tokyo-based interior designer Daisuke Yamamoto has unveiled a new armchair from his project named "FLOW". In today's Japan, where the average lifespan of shops is said to be five years, FLOW is a spontaneous initiative born out of his doubts about Japanese scrap-and-build culture. Yamamoto, who is in charge of shop development as a creative advisor for the fashion brand Beautiful People, has been tackling the design of reusing materials at the Shibuya Parco store (2019) and the JR Nagoya Takashimaya store (2020).
Then, for the pop-up store ' beautiful people pop-up store unseen archives during the pandemic' (2021), he created sedia 1 chair, originally designed by Enzo Mari in the 1970s as a DIY chair, using reclaimed LGS (Light Gauge Steel), and it became a hot topic. The newly designed chair, also using LGS, is the ARM.
Chair ‘sedia 1’, based on a drawing by Enzo Mari from his book 'autoprogettazione?' (1974). It was once produced with only LGSs for beautiful people's pop-up store in 2021.
Yamamoto explained the design of the ARM, "We used only LGS, joints and screws, which are common materials for the interior. As for the chair's shape, we treated the LGS as a board and tried to find a form that would work as a chair with a minimum number of components." Another key feature was the ability to assemble in a short time and to be tough with a simple structure.
This chair was not developed just to make a beautiful chair with LGS. The sophisticated design was created in the process of considering the sustainability of post-demolition building materials. The design is based on the experience of assembling sedia1 on a construction site from reclaimed LGS.
Yamamoto summed up the FLOW project so far as follows. "'This initiative is not a big invention, like producing new sustainable building materials. It is the kind of project we conduct ourselves from start to finish, imagining a near future of five or ten years. We chose LGS because it was the ideal material in terms of sustainable use of building materials. It is a very small initiative, but I believe that a bunch of small ideas can change the world. We would expect these activities to become more common.
Thanks to the story-telling chairs, their challenge is getting a growing response from Europe and Japan, so they are now seeking galleries for collaboration. In addition to the chairs, a series of products, including the latest shelves and lighting fixtures, will be presented at the "FLOW" exhibition / DESIGNART TOKYO, which starts on October 14.
DETAIL
LGS is a cold-formed material mainly used for framing. The designer Yamamoto does not paint the surface, leaving the galvanised texture.
The chair was made from LGS studs sized 20mm×40mm.
All the edges of the LGS stud are covered with C-shape parts to conceal the cut surface and ensure safety.
CREDIT
Name: ARM Chair/FLOW
Design: Daisuke Yamamoto, Eisuke Hida / DAISUKE YAMAMOTO
Production: Kazuki Chikagawa, Yoshitomo Suzuki
Material: LGS (20mm×40mm)
Size: W610 D520 H860 SH420
