CITYist

A while back, we mentioned Bottega Veneta’s design competition, a contest for Japanese architectural students that would culminate at this year’s Salone del Mobile. Well, that time is here, and the winners have now been revealed—three students who produced stark, modern structures with rather avant garde ideology behind them. So, world-class innovation, or something you can pick up at your neighborhood Ikea? Take a look and be the judge.

The first, designed by Shima Suzuki, is bizarrely named “Tube with Inner Luxury.” Taking cues from the Japanese Edo period, where menswear was subtle on the outside and flashy in the lining, the tube is made up of four cubes that can be taken apart and rearranged to form new shapes, and presumably functions as a coffee or end table. The flashy twist? Intrecciato leather on the inside.

Ayami Takada’s table, christened the “Origami Side Table,” is easy to figure out. It resembles an intricately folded piece of paper, and feels like one too: fashioned from light aluminum covered in leather, it’s designed to feel as light as a tissue-thin Origami sheet.

Lastly, the “Domestic Landscape of Intrecciato,” created by Kentaro Fujimoto, is the most simple of the designs. Intrecciato is the oft-used Bottega Veneta design technique of weaving leather. The table also references Kuwara, a material used in Japanese roofs, and is meant to be put together in various combinations.