Japanese design master Tokujin Yoshioka has previewed images of Memory, a new chair for Moroso made from a “special fabric with recycled aluminum.”

The new chair, Memory, can be shaped to the user’s whim (just like a sheet of aluminum foil). As Yoshioka writes, “This is a chair of an unlimited variety of forms…[It] might remind us of the beauty in nature with its ever-changing expressions, and also create impression as if there is no presence of design.” Which is kind of a fascinating way to think about.

Interview with Tokujin with thanks to Core77

Yoshioka’s known for some brilliant, subtle explorations of material and form–including a chair made of paper-like cloth; another made of living crystal; and still another, inspired by bread, made of plastic fibers baked in a kiln.

There’s actually precedent for this sort of move, too–albeit with a lot less poetry, and a lot more rage. One of Droog’s most iconic pieces is the Do Hit Chair, from 2000. It comes as a metal cube, with a sledgehammer. Then you shape the thing as you see fit

Yoshika’s studio adds that the fabric is “softer than expected,” and that the chair can be readily reformed. Apparently, Yoshioka conceived the chair several years ago, but it took a year of materials experiments and over 50 scale models to finalize the design. Here’s some more pictures of the process.

A closeup of the fabric, which has layer of sandwiched aluminum to give it shape, in its raw form:

prototypes