Crease Bench is a versatile seating solution designed for semi-public spaces like museum lounges, hotel lobbies, and educational environments, offering temporary resting areas for users. Its curvature design accommodates up to three people, and when arranged in multiples, it creates dynamic seating patterns such as circles and S shapes, allowing for flexible social interactions while maintaining social distancing.
The bench's top is finished with ash veneer, enhancing the materiality of the bent plywood, which maximizes its visual and physical minimalism. The absence of a central leg, made possible by the flexibility of the plywood, contributes to a clean, continuous form. The legs are composed of eight layers of bent plywood, jointed with a central plywood board and supported by a metal stretcher for added weight-bearing capacity. The differentiated orientation of the veneer grain, with straight grain on top and cross-grain on the bottom, further emphasizes its origami-inspired quality, making Crease Bench both functional and visually engaging in any space.
Bio Nomaki Etsu is an industrial designer who primarily uses furniture to express his holistic sense of understanding of the living world, particularly through the levels of architecture, artifacts, and visuals. Nomaki not only engages with the design realm but also embraces art, sensing the flow-of-being in various forms such as literature, performance, sound. He pursues his studio practice through questioning, thinking critically about, and designing the existing environment, dedicating himself to challenging the prevailing norms of living and offering alternative perspectives.
Other prizes Thinking Chair, IDPA, Pioneer Award, 2025 Silver Winner, Seating & Comfort Furniture, NY Product Design Award The Aurora Table: IDA 2023, Honorable Mention
