London furniture brand SCP joins forces with Japan’s Ishinomaki laboratory to unveil a new collection of furniture and domestic objects developed with contemporary designers during London Design Festival 2021. Marking the tenth anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami (in the aftermath of which the Japanese workshop was founded), the collection celebrates the long-term collaboration between founder Keiji Ashizawa and SCP founder Sheridan Coakley.
SCP and Ishinomaki Laboratory
The collaboration between the two companies has continuously evolved since they first met in 2014, with SCP becoming the first company to make Ishinomaki Laboratory products outside of Japan, as part of its Made in Local initiative. As a result, SCP produces Ishinomaki Laboratory in its specialist Norfolk workshop, using Japanese techniques with local materials.
Designers include Matthew Hilton, Industrial Facility’s Sam Hecht & Kim Colin, Reiko Kaneko, Livia Lauber, Philippe Malouin, Daniel Schofield, and Ilse Crawford & Oscar Peña. The brief given by Coakley and Ashizawa to the group was simple: to design a piece of furniture or object from stock board widths in Western red cedar. Designers worked within the constraints of the Ishinomaki Laboratory guidelines, considering available machinery and tools, while designing to minimise waste. This way, all pieces in the collection can be easily reproduced by any global Ishinomaki Laboratory partner.
Each designer brought their aesthetic sensibility to the project, resultig in an eclectic collection that merges different languages under the harmonious aesthetic of the Ishinomaki craft. Originating from the boards, the pieces feature simple compositions and compact forms, and consider contemporary living as well as the needs of public and hospitality spaces – each interpretation offering a diverse point of view on the material and construction techniques.
The collaboration features a wide range of pieces, including chairs, tables and armchairs. Designers also created planters, storage furniture, a gym bench, bird baths and small functional furniture, such as side tables and stools, that responds to the demands of flexible living and compact spaces.
The collection is part of SCP’s ‘All Our Working Lives’, dubbed ‘an exploration of human centric design and new ideas about our working lives’, staged at their Shoreditch store. §
Nesting tables by Livia Lauber
‘FLW’ armchair by Samuel Wilkinson
‘Shichi’ stool by Michael Marriott
‘Left’ side table by Ilse Crawford and Oscar Peña
Gym by Matthew Hilton
Café chair by Philippe Malouin