Loku Piston Stool

Born in Japan, Shin Azumi earned a master’s in industrial design from the Royal College of Art in 1994, then eventually founded his own London-based design studio in 2005. His clients include Lapalma, Magis and Muji, and he’s won numerous design awards, including the FX International Design Award in 2010 for the LEM Piston Stool. For his Loku Collection (2017), Azumi took advantage of the latest molded plywood techniques, but he also exercised restraint to avoid creating something overwrought. “Some of the 3-D molded wood chairs in the market are getting too similar to plastic ones,” he says. “When I designed Loku, I was careful to keep the dignity and the beauty of a wooden chair.” Made in Thailand.