tokujin yoshioka presented both new projects and
a selection of his work from the last three years in
the exhibition ‘super fiber revolution’. on show were
the projects: ‘fiber architecture’, ‘snowflake’,
‘rememberance’ and ‘pane chair’.

fiber architecture
tokujin’s approach towards structures of the future
follows the the idea that, to achieve great strength
small light fibers should be systematically organized.
this approach differs to the common belief that hard
materials should be used. the principle is similar to
that of the japanese art ‘aikido’, in which strength is
generated by diverting force through a circular
movement.

snowflake rug
the rug design is made from weaving various transparent
fibers together, the design suggests a crystalized
snowscape.

rememberance installation
the ‘cloud installation of 550,000 transparent straws'
was designed for a window display at maison hermes
in tokyo. bunches of straws are tightly accumlated together
to suggest clouds. the use of weightless materials expresses
the idea of ‘formless’ and ‘fluid air’.

pane chair (bread chair)
a semi-cylindrical block of fibers is rolled, inserted into
a paper tube and then baked in a kiln to create a chair that
‘feels like sitting on air’. the chair was shown for the first
time at the milan design week in april 2006. the result of the
process is a chair that has an ‘uncertain finish’ adding to
the organic feel of the design. as part of the ‘super fiber exhibition’
many of the chairs prtotypes were on show each highlighting
the stages that the cahir went through before the perfect recipe
was found.

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related links:
designboom interview with tokujin yoshioka
http://www.tokujin.com