The chair born in Omishima Island

The furniture which is custom made for a specific “place” has a distinctive appearance.  
I think this could be brought out by the designer’s strong imagination to coordinate elements such as who will use and where to use for each furniture.  
“omi” was created along the project for an accommodation “Omishima Ikoi-no-ie,” which was a renovation project of a former elementary school, directed by the architect Mr Toyo Ito and his architecture school “Ito Juku.”  Taiji Fujimori Atelier was given an opportunity to design dining chairs, supported by Karimoku Furniture.  
Then one time, Mr Ito said “I want to enjoy breakfast at a table with a white tablecloth in the beautiful location of Omishima,” and his words overlapped with my own memory when I had a very nice breakfast at the hotel in Basel, Switzerland.  The vivid contrast of the white tablecloth and black traditional Swiss chairs was so beautiful, and my intuition was telling me this will be the perfect concept for the dining room with an atmosphere of the old elementary school.
Compact in size, assembled with black round wooden rods, the seat is topped with a round cushion just like a pancake, so they can be more expressive as a whole when they are lined up in a row – these were my initial ideas when I started designing.
I hope that Omishima-born “omi” will start its journey to many places from now on.