Wood you: History and carpentry create furniture built to last

Milan – The emphasis on traditional craftsmanship and heritage is becoming ever more important as a way to engage with consumers in the Turbulent Teens – as described in our recent macromarket report on the luxury market. The work from Japanese design company Karimoku, showing at Milan Design Week, exemplifies this trend.

To create the New Standard exhibition, creative director Teruhiro Yanagihara invited designers such as Sylvian Willenz, Scholten & Baijings and BIG-GAME to create works that mix the old with the new. His brief asked the designers to combine his company’s history of refined carpentry – which dates back to the Edo period (1603 to 1868) – with contemporary design, sustainable thinking and the latest production techniques. The result is a collection of beautiful and relevant products.

While BIG-GAME has created a coat stand whose individual pegs fold back neatly into the standing column, Scholten & Baijings has produced a collection of coffee tables in its signature style. The tops feature ink-jet printed geometric patterns. The bases are constructed as if wine barrels. The accent colours are fluorescent pink, fluorescent yellow and bright turquoise.

As described in our Emotional Home report, products will need to last and grow with today and tomorrow’s consumers. This sentiment is mirrored by Karimoku’s stance on wood: ‘if using a 100-year old tree, create furniture worthy of its age’.