Site Specific: Dentil Furniture by Shotaro Oshima
Shotaro Oshima - Tokyo, 2024
SO This furniture design project was planned for an office space in the Meiji Seimei Kan, an important historic office building built in the 1930’s and an important cultural asset in Tokyo. The Meiji Seimei Kan has a granite exterior with a powerful Corinthian order and a curious harmony of delicate acanthus pattern decoration. It is a magnificent building in the Neo-Renaissance style that deserves to be called a masterpiece of Western-style architecture in Japan. The construction was completed in 1934.
In order to find suitable furniture for the interior of this representative Western-style building, we researched the façade design, paying homage to the history of the Meiji Seimei Kan. The architectural elements were broken down to extract an architectural language that could be applied to the design of the furniture.
The commission was for office furniture for a conference room, so we designed eight three-seater tables on castors and 24 chairs. The tables required a strong internal structure to support the tops, so a careful structural study was carried out with the furniture maker. Black painted oak was used to create a contrast against the white conference room walls and to emphasise the presence of the furniture.
A common element in the design of the table and chair is the ‘Dentil’ (A small rectangular block - a tooth-like cube - used in a series forming a moulding under Ionic and Corinthian and sometimes Doric cornices). The surface of the table is split into two horizontal planes and between these elements ‘Dentils’ are inserted, creating a rhythm to the horizontal proportions and disguising the depth required for structural integrity of the table.
