デザインの力で
森を身近に感じてもらう

These pieces of public furniture were created to convey the vitality of the forest. For that reason, I aimed for designs that are simple and easy to understand, while also embedding my own formative experiences and feelings toward the forest. The Mushroom Bench (Ishiro_B01) is a gently rocking bench shaped as if the silhouette of a mushroom had been pressed outward. Its curved seat naturally draws two people closer together, encouraging them to sit shoulder to shoulder. The Log Stool (Ishiro_S02) was inspired by illustrations of a tree’s cross section. By carving directly from a log, flat grain, straight grain, and growth rings appear as a continuous surface, creating a three-dimensional specimen of wood that I hope children, in particular, will enjoy exploring. The Squared Timber Bench (Ishiro_B03) is based on my childhood experience of helping my grandmother cultivate shiitake mushrooms. I was also conscious of minimizing waste in the production process. I learned that furniture made for mass production often utilizes only about 30 percent of a single log through sawing and processing. This led to the idea of creating cushion-shaped wooden seating parts by slicing logs into cross sections rather than turning them into boards. For this project, three geometric seat forms—circle, triangle, and square—were combined with steel and stainless-steel legs (Ishiro_B02). This system can be expanded into various types of benches, and further developed through future collaborations with creators and manufacturers. With this project as a starting point, I hope to open up many new possibilities. Above all, I invite you to visit the Ishiro Forest, where fascinating pieces of wood lie scattered throughout, waiting to be discovered.