Cabbage Chair

Oki Sato created Cabbage Chair in response to Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake’s request that he design a furniture piece out of the pleated paper produced in mass quantities during the process of making pleated fabric and usually abandoned as an unwanted by-product. Finding a new use for this waste material, Sato, with his design company, Nendo, transformed a roll of pleated paper into a small chair that appears naturally when peeled back one layer at a time. This simple design exploits the inherent qualities of the medium; resins added during the paper production process add strength and memory to the forms, and the pleats themselves give the chair elasticity and resilience. Sato’s design also incorporates the user in the design process; the chair is shipped as one compact roll for the user to cut open and peel back.