Chair 'Cabbage Chair', pleated unwoven fabric, designed by nendo, Tokyo, 2008

Chair, made of pleated unwoven fabric which pressed in a 75cm high roll that has been cut layer by layer from the top to mid-height along its radius, and opened up to form the seat. The colour of the sheets of fabric of this chair alternate by layer.

Purchased by the Outset Design Fund

The design which became the Cabbage Chair resulted from a commission in 2008 from fashion designer Issey Miyake to a group of artists and designers to imagine 'how things would be made in the 21st century'. This exhibition aimed at exploring ways man might live in the future. The results were to form an exhibition at the 21_21 Design Sight Gallery in Roppongi, Tokyo. Oki Sato focussed on the idea of re-use of materials and, indeed, on Miyake's work, and began experimenting with rolls of paper that had been used in the making of Miyake's well-known Pleats Please fabrics. This paper is folded into the fabric to protect it during the process of pressing. Twice as much paper as fabric is required and, after use, it is rolled into cylinders, then discarded.

Sato began by trying to add resin to the paper and even to combine the paper with other materials, including wood and steel. He abandoned these and worked directly on the roll of waste paper, peeling layer by layer, from the top to about half way down. He found that he was able to create a structure suitable for sitting without the addition of any core or supports. Only very few examples of the paper version still exist today. V&A acquired a paper version in 2012 (W. 2-2013).

Satisfied with the result, Sato agreed to make full scale versions of the chair in unwoven fabric, which required changes to the density of material. Miyake named it the Cabbage Chair, referring to its layered structure. Editions in black, and in black and white, were made for the exhibition at Miyake's 21_21 Design Sight Gallery and they were exhibited along with various prototypes in different materials, colours and sizes. Subsequent editions in other colours were made. These were sold through New York's FriedmanBenda Gallery, which hosted the exhibition 'nendo: ghost stories' in 2009.

Lead designer Oki Sato was born in Toronto in 1977. He studied architecture at Waseda University graduating from his MA in 2002. Together with several partners he opened the Tokyo based design firm nendo. A Milan based studio was opened in 2005.

The concept behind nendo is to unveil 'the small "!" moments hidden in our everyday' . Nendo means 'clay' in Japanese; Oki Sato chose this name because it reflected his yearning for malleability in his practice. Interested in daily objects beyond grand narratives, he deliberately writes it without a capital letter.

Nendo rapidly grew to become a very successful design firm that has been compared to the likes of Naoto Fukasawa and Tokujin Yoshioka. They started exhibiting at the Milano Salone and Tokyo Design Week from 2003 and have been awarded many prices among which a Red Dot Award in 2006 and the 2009 Wallpaper* Designer of the year title. Despite their subtle Japanese vernacular, nendo refuses to be categorised as insular design and repeatedly claims its international scope.

Design Historian Sarah Teasley has described their work as "unapologetically of today" and as having a "quietly agile intellect, subtle humour, unspoken understanding of materials and function, thoughtful attention to context and above all to the small beauty of the objects and spaces created". (Sarah Teasley in the introduction to the 2010 exhibition catalogue).

The Cabbage Chair was designed in 2008 by Japanese design firm nendo, for fashion designer Issey Miyake's show XXIst Century Man in Tokyo. Originally made from waste paper rolls from the fashion designer's atelier, the chair was created with sustainability concerns in mind using the paper from the production of Miyake's Please Pleats collection. Lead designer Oki Sato decided to peel off - layer by layer - the roll of paper from top to knee height, thus giving form to the seat. Later versions, such as this one, were made in unwoven fabric. Despite its apparent fragility, the seat is stable and comfortable. Proudly opening up and unfolding its thin layers, the chair was dubbed Cabbage chair by Issey Miyake himself.

W.22-2011