I love the design of this beautiful chair, coffee table and screen from ITOKI Design. But what I love almost even more, is the story behind the material used.

In the 50's and 60's, Japan embarked on a nationwide effort to plant cedar trees for use in the domestic building industry. With new technologies and alternate materials, the need for cedar has declined precipitously, leaving these artificial cedar forests abandoned and decaying. Rather than clear and waste this once precious resource, the Japanese government has issued a mandate to make use of cedar in innovative ways. In Hida, a special process has been developed to compress by one third, the otherwise soft and weak cedar into sustainable strong boards. Itoki Design has partnered with Hida to imagine new and thoughtful products from this ancient yet reinvigorated material.

Pictures and story via Industrial Design Served