KYOTO

The Kyoto round coffee table by the great Shiro Kuramata is made using the traditional terrazzo technique of concrete conglomerate and colored glass.

With its circular base and top, Kyoto is a playful-looking side table that nevertheless belies Kuramata's profound research into the relationship between craftsmanship and decorative art, which was also being explored at the same time by the Memphis group.

Fascinated by the works and theories of Memphis, Kuramata was asked by Sottsass to join the group when it was founded in 1981. With his essential and fantastical forms, Kuramata subverted viewers' expectations, creating objects as iconic as Kyoto yet extremely functional.

Shiro Kuramata graduated with a degree in Architecture from Tokyo Polytechnic University in 1953. As an interior designer, he designed furniture and over three hundred bars and restaurants. During the 1970s and 1980s, attracted by the numerous possibilities offered by new technologies and industrial materials, Kuramata turned to acrylic, glass, aluminum, and steel mesh to create transparent and lightweight objects. Endowed with a playful spirit and a lover of the bright colors of Ettore Sottsass, he joined Memphis at its founding in 1981. Kuramata reevaluated the relationship between form and function, imposing his surreal and minimalist vision on everyday objects. Among his most enduring collaborations was with the fashion brand Issey Miyake, for which he designed most of the interiors of Miyake boutiques worldwide from the late 1970s to 1990.

Ø 60, H 70 cm; 65 kg