Material Tendencies: Oki Sato of nendo
Text by Anita Hackethal
Berlin, Germany
15.01.17
Oki Sato, founder of Japanese design studio nendo, likes to create objects that generate a story and make people smile.
Oki Sato / nendo - Photo © Architonic / Anita Hackethal
Trained as an architect, his varied and often surprising collection of works are a result of him noticing the small things in everyday life. Architonic spoke to Oki Sato as part of our ongoing Material Tendencies series.
Oki Sato: I would maybe choose clay, because nendo means clay in Japanese. It's the flexibility of designing things. Clay can become any kind of shape, size or colour. Also, when I was a small child, I liked playing with clay. So if I had to choose one material to play with, it would be clay. But I really don’t think about materials in the beginning. It is always about emotions. I come up with small stories that I first tell with my drawings and then at the end we start thinking about the materials, colours and textures. It is almost like a puzzle. We try to find the best-matching piece.
