What happens when six designers are given a cedarwood tree to transform?

Tree stumps. Public benches. Swaying treetops. A worker and his bandsaw. Heavy machinery. And five animal spirits preserving the soul of a forest – from a jumping deer to a curious fox.

'A Tree' is a new project in Japan that journeys through a raft of creative perspectives – from the technical and the functional to the otherworldly magical – bringing to life a new series of objects crafted in cedarwood from ancient forests.

Six designers – Siin Siin from Japan, South Korean studio Kuo Duo, Fabien Cappello, working from Mexico, plus London-based creatives Rio Kobayashi, Max Lamb and Faye Toogood – travelled to the deep forests of Yoshino in Nara Prefecture, to explore its centuries-old forestry history and communities, cultivation technology and making practices.

Six designers working with Yoshino Cedarwood

Each creative was given a tree to transform. The end results, from chairs to benches, are now displayed at Ginza Six retail complex in Tokyo, scattered in public spaces to enhance interaction between visitors and objects, forest and city.

Helming the project, architect Keisuke Nakamura of Daikei Mills tells Wallpaper*: 'Following a project I undertook in the Yoshino area three years ago, I became acquainted with the local forestry industry. Whilst I came to appreciate the depth of Yoshino cedar and its significance as a material unique to Japan, I also became aware of the challenges facing the forestry sector –and felt a sense of responsibility as a creator to become more deeply involved.'

Highlighting the connective thread between the designers, he adds: 'They are all creators who, in their craft, demonstrate a passion for exploring materials, place great importance on the creative process and show respect for everyone involved in a project.'

Over the past 500 years, cedarwood from Yoshino, known as Yoshino sugi, has become a near-sacred byword for quality wood manufacturing in Japan, shaping countless spaces and objects, from temples, shrines and residences to sake barrels and bathtubs.

Meticulously cultivated using an ancient plantation technique, Yoshino sugi is used widely among architects, designers and artisans, due to its straight grain, minimal knots, lightweight strength and distinct forest-fresh aroma.

A growing furniture collection

The project collaborated with two timber specialists Houei Forestry and Ohtani Wood in Yoshino, while the works were produced by E&Y. Creations by Lamb and Toogood recently joined the collection, as the second phase of the series.

For Lamb, witnessing the meticulous technical mastery of 'one man and his machine' during his visit into the heart of the forest inspired his sculptural series Cedar is a Soft Wood. As he explains: 'It begins and ends with a tree. In the middle there is Ohtani-san and his bandsaw. Nothing else. What can Ohtani-san do with his bandsaw?'

Toogood tapped into the spiritual depth of the forest and Japan’s innate respect for the natural world – expressed through the magical realism-inflected storytelling of five animal 'spirits'. Timeless and playful, the forest was reimagined in watercolour paintings, poems and eventually five seating sculptures crafted from a single 25m high tree.

Shaped by a primitive simplicity, 'Five Spirits, One Sugi' includes the flowing lightness of The Deer, the rhythmic form of The Woodpecker, the earthy curves of The Toad, the diagonal edges of The Fox and the warm solidity of The Bear.

'My pieces started with a very spiritual response to the forest,' she explains. 'I came back and in my journal, I wrote a poem and did some watercolours of the animals that I'd seen. It was not just my experience in the forest that I wanted to represent – but also the fact that this forest is a habitat for all these beautiful animals.

'Having that context with nature is so important to my work and something I want to bring into a commercial environment. I think that feeling of nature is not only coming through from the material, but also the way you view the shapes. I brought the animals into the furniture – the big bear, the jumping deer – they are all there. For me, it was about trying to let those animals live through the wood and the furniture.'

The full A Tree collection, currently on display at Ginza Six, also includes creations completed last autumn for phase one of the project. Fabien Cappello designed a bench that transforms the act of seating into a shared and public experience, inspired by common typologies found in airports, bus stations and waiting areas. As he explains: 'It explores the questions: can a single tree be transformed to comfortably seat many people, and how to foster comfort and invitation in public seating.'

Ideas of inversion, movement and cultural reinterpretation are written into 'Edisni tuo', a furniture series by Japanese-Austrian designer Rio Kobayashi. One of his first projects to take shape in Japan, having spent more than half his life overseas, the pieces mark a reframing of his perspective of home; 'like inside-out sushi, a Western twist on a Japanese dish'. Added to the mix is an unexpected 'wobble' – inspired by the movement of treetops in the wind.

'The pieces invert what is expected,' he says. 'Bark is kept, cut surfaces are exposed and what’s usually discarded becomes essential.'

For Siin Siin, the starting point was creating a dialogue between material and technique – with traces of splitting wood by axe combined with stainless steel joints inspired by heavy machinery. Meanwhile, Kuo Duo dreamt up Kiri Kabu, a reinterpretation of tree stumps, balancing the material contrast of pale heartwood and rich sapwood. The tree was dissected into a puzzle of nine sections: four corner pieces reassembled to create a cylindrical base, before being turned on a lathe to form a conical form, while the remaining parts were used for structural elements such as seats and backrests.

And just like the life of a forest, the project will continue to evolve. The collections are displayed at Ginza Six until autumn, with a final, as yet undisclosed, phase due to unfold over the coming year.