object ⇄ forest もりからものへ

森の生命力を伝える「公共家具」

横関 亮太 / RYOTA YOKOZEKI STUDIO

# ものがたり

森を知り、木の可能性を広げる
何かのきっかけとなるものづくり

これまで多くのものづくりを行なってきた。木製品は、森の木を伐採し、製材し加工して商流を経て我々のもとに届いている。多くの工程と人が関わることで効率良く大量に作り、いろんな人や場所に届くようになったが、その分、素材の魅力やつくった人の顔、過程が見えづらくなっているようにも感じていた。今回「井代の森」に入り田實さんと会話し、森を肌身で感じることで、改めてはっと気づくことが多かった。その体験から、ただカタチをつくるのではなく、生態系や現状の課題を届けて、さらには生命の営みと時の重なりによる森の美しさを感じてもらうために、多くの人に触れる「公共家具」というアイテムをつくることに行き着いた。作ったスツールやベンチは、虫食いの痕やフシも生かし、丸太のかたまりを感じるデザインにこだわった。使いづらい木の根元の部分を輪切りの材として採用したことも、森に入り、森を知ることでうまれたアイデアだ。木のプロダクトはたくさんつくってきたが、もっとも木の生命力が伝わり時の流れを感じられるものになったと思う。森と対話してつくったものが、今後どれだけの影響を与えられるか。人の役に立てるものづくりとなれば、嬉しい。

Public furniture that conveys the forest’s vitality

Ryota Yokozeki / RYOTA YOKOZEKI STUDIO

# MONOGATARI

We want to make things that help people learn about forests and expand the possibilities of wood—works that spark curiosity.

We’ve created many things over the years. Wood products reach us only after trees are felled in the forest, sawn and processed, and moved through the supply chain. While involving many processes and people has made it possible to produce large quantities efficiently and deliver them widely, I have felt that the true charm of the materials, the faces of the people who made them, and the process itself have become harder to see. By stepping into Ishiro Forest, talking with Mr.Tajitsu, and experiencing the forest firsthand, we were struck by many fresh realizations. From that experience, we chose not just to shape objects, but to create public furniture—items many people can encounter—so we can share the ecosystem and its current challenges, and help people feel the forest’s beauty born of life’s rhythms and the passage of time. The stools and benches we made embrace insect traces and knots, and focus on designs that let you feel the presence of the log itself. Adopting the typically hard-to-use root butt as cross-cut stock was another idea that came from going into the forest and getting to know it. We’ve produced many wooden objects, but these convey the wood’s vitality—and the flow of time—more than any before. How much impact will things created in dialogue with the forest have from here on? If they can truly serve people, nothing would make us happier.