Cabbage Chair is a new product by Japanese designers Nendo made of waste paper from the pleated fabric industry.
The paper is wrapped into a cylinder and cut vertically halfway down one side so that the layers can be peeled back one at a time.
Nendo designed the chair for the XXIst Century Man exhibition curated by Issey Miyake, which will be at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo from 30 March to 6 July 2008.
The following information is from Nendo:
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Nendo designed the cabbage chair for the XXIst Cetury Man exhibition curated by Issey Miyake to commemorate the first anniversary of 21_21 Design Sight in Roppongi, Tokyo.
Miyake asked us to make furniture out of the pleated paper that is produced in mass amounts during the process of making pleated fabric and usually abandoned as an unwanted by-product.
Our solution to his challenge transformed a roll of pleated paper into a small chair that appears naturally as you peel away its outside layers, one layer at a time.
Resins added during the original paper production process add strength and the ability to remember forms, and the pleats themselves give the chair elasticity and a springy resilience, for an overall effect that looks almost rough, but gives the user a soft, comfortable seating experience.
Since the production process is so simple, we thought that eventually the chair could be shipped as one compact roll for the user to cut open and peel back at home.
The chair has no internal structure. It is not finished and it is assembled without nails or screws. The primitive design responds gently to fabrication and distribution costs and environmental concerns, the kind of issues that face out 21st century selves.
Thus, the cabbage chair fits active, optimistic and forward-moving “21st century selves,” the kind of people who, to borrow a concept Miyake expressed during a meeting with us, “don’t just wear clothes, but shed their skin”.
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Posted by Rose Etherington
March 6th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Awesome! Wait… how do you sit in it?
March 6th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Creative use of recycling. But I feel like I’m just looking at the evelution of a bean bag chair.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Hmmm, it’s okay.
I don’t really get what’s so special.
Kinda complicated.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:40 am
it doesnt look like a comfort chair to me, anyway… i think it should show a photo @ least someone actually sat there (more like d’ cut leek)
March 7th, 2008 at 4:42 am
More of a ’something’ than a chair.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:31 am
u won’t like it the next day u created it.
i agree with Arch, it’s just “something”.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:31 am
like sitting in a flower . . . how poetic , but is it comfortable ?
March 7th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Yes, I agree too. He just took this amount of paper and though: Shall I do a lamp or a chair? Ok, a chair!
The result is an anecdote and it lacks concept, structure, function, commune sense. Maybe, you could find some beauty in there, but for my taste this is not enough.
March 7th, 2008 at 11:25 am
What about the damage occured by human weight after a few sits ? Will the tender layers of paper stay the same?? Don’t think so. In my oppinion it’s more of an artwork than a furniture.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Beautiful, for sure.
But it looks like it was made for the human eye, not the human body.
March 7th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
for tiny bottoms only .
in fact , my cats would love this ….
March 7th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
That is one of the worst designed things I’ve ever seen in my life. Completely self-indulgent, not to mention impractical and unsafe – what happens when you drop a cigarette on it by accident?
….. it also is nothing more than a roll of paper.
March 7th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I love Nendo ’s works… but it’s only for extra thin model …Sumo are not invited in this flagship’s icon chair…
March 7th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
is it a brainstorming between Tokujin Yoshioka and Campana brothers?
March 7th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Aha,
the envious Miserablist feeding frenzy.
March 8th, 2008 at 7:43 am
white is white
see the white nendo work for lexus cars in (preview) Milan
see the white lehanneur work for Yamamoto fashion shop in Paris
March 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
same idea of the garlic head. layer by layer ,when we tear them
March 8th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
coreans too
http://www.kwangholee.com/main.html
March 9th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
like a Honey-Pop and a Sushi chair made love and produced offspring (per zuy)
March 9th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
the trend concept is wild chair!!!
March 11th, 2008 at 3:05 am
Something, a concept… agree.
Lovely shape, lovely intention, but from here, not a functionnal chair…
I ask to see/try for real.
Yes what after a few seats? I have the feeling that it will squeeze and fold under my weight. Will not the layer’s sheets quickly crease and make the object look like a crappy pile of paper?
I wonder.
Nice chair-shaped object for a design gallery.
March 11th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
nice layers…
March 11th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Ha ha… love that ‘ Miserablist feeding frenzy’ comment. ….
Am I the only person that plays ‘guess the nationality of the commentators’?
March 12th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
once again, nice layers…
March 16th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
http://www.designboom.com/eng/funclub/israeli/ezritarazi.jpg
March 18th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Ok, ‘chair for XXI century man’ ,let’s think: XXI man- 1.don’t smoke, so will not smoke in this chair; 2.is slim, so he will not crush it; 3.should think about ecology!; should have at home beautiful things
April 5th, 2008 at 3:53 am
make it a huge arm chair
April 16th, 2008 at 3:52 am
It is a bad imitation of Tokujin Yoshioka’s chair.
Nendo is great at imitating someone’s something.
May 10th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
is the cabbage chair available in the usa?
February 16th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Lo ve the cabbage chiar – where can it be purchased in USA ?