Sometimes things have become so familiar, that one has to take a step back
to appreciate their true beauty.
In Japan bamboo grows almost everywhere in nature. In fact, it is so common, that you don’t even acknowledge its existence in day to day life. When I lived there I never thought much about it. This only changed recently, when I was traveling the countryside of my home country and realized that I really wanted to use this special material for a new cabinet project, called ‚Play Bamboo‘.
My plan was not only to use materials from Germany and Japan, but also to work on those materials in the respective countries.
Once I finished the oak parts of the two cabinets in my Berlin workshop, I went to Japan, where I found the perfect bamboo for my furniture concept in a town called Awa in Kochi prefecture.
This small town is home to a unique type of bamboo, that was given the name ‚Tiger-Bamboo‘ (Taketora) because of it’s distinctive color pattern.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is not customary to produce furniture by using whole bamboo canes in Japan. For me it was totally new experience that provided new challenges. For example, I had to completely adjust the way I was used to drill holes, so that the bamboo wouldn’t crack.
As a matter of fact, cracks do not necessarily affect the durability nor the stability of the material. It is even seen as a part of the special appeal of bamboo, that it changes its appearance due to discoloration and crack formation over time. But the ones that I was accidentally creating at the beginning were so huge, that the whole piece of bamboo became totally unusable. Only gradually I was developing a feel for this new material. This went so far that by the time I finished the ‚Play Bamboo’ project I was able to predict, if a piece would crack under pressure, even before I started the drilling.
In the end, I was able to create two cabinets, that not only symbolize my Japanese and German influences, but also highlight the unique beauty of oak and bamboo by putting them in direct contrast side by side.
SIZE: W110 D90 H110cm
W110 D90 H 170cm
Material: oak, bamboo, glass