INTERIOR DESIGNS

After listening to the client describe essential ‘scenes of daily life’, Geneto translated his wishes into a residential interior in Tokyo.

This private residence was designed by Geneto, a group of architects that includes the Yamanaka brothers, among others. They have a workshop in Kyoto devoted to making wooden furniture. This facility enables them to fuse architecture with furniture, an approach that characterizes their design strategy. ‘We had been exploring the possibility of making a space richer with something that would be less significant than architecture but more significant than furniture,’ says Yuji Yamanaka. The ensuing project includes very few pieces of furniture. Instead, they created objects from 24-mm-thick structural plywood and combined them in different configurations to satisfy the client’s various living requirements. Harmonizing with the interior, the flexible objects replace conventional furniture and storage. They have been painted black, but the wood grain is visible upon close inspection. From a distance, these solid black volumes follow the lines of the white walls to create a serene atmosphere.