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Japanese designer Yuji Tanabe creates chairs out of wooden jigsaw puzzle mats
The Twins-MDF chairs as a rendition of the Twins-steel chairs
Image: Courtesy of Yuji Tanabe
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Japanese designer Yuji Tanabe creates chairs out of wooden jigsaw puzzle mats

The Twins-MDF chairs, a rendition of the original Twins-Steel chairs designed by Yuji Tanabe in 2004 is designed to reduce wood offcuts.

by Ayushi Mathur
Published on : Aug 08, 2022

For the longest time, industrial designers have worked towards yielding maximum results with minimum wastage and even though designing any product is bound to incur some material mincemeat. Japanese architect and industrial designer Yuji Tanabe has mapped a seating system that kills the cause of wastage by creatively utilising masses and voids. The Twins-MDF chairs are a spin-off on the stainless steel ‘Twins’ that Tanabe conceptualised in 2004. By complementing structures and fitting in perfectly like the pieces of a puzzle, the 'Frame chair' and the 'Surface chair' channel the contextual vibe of nesting dolls and matryoshka puzzles. “We repeatedly studied the manufacturable range, drill width, and the position interference of each other's joints. It's like creating a puzzle while searching for the greatest common divisors of each,” says Yuji Tanabe on the creative process of the twin chairs.

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The four output of one MDF board Image: Courtesy of Yuji Tanabe

Due to land's inherent taxes, which raise the cost of land, and a lack of flat land, smaller homes predominate on the housing market in Japan. In addition to having a dense population, the Japanese landscape is primarily mountainous and rough. To deal with situations such as these, Japanese houses are often tinier. However, with their creative manpower, the country has successfully devised designs that effectively takes up lesser space but continue to forecast ethereal simplicity and minimalism. For instance, the Japanese low tables, fold-away desks and beds, staircase storage systems, and now, the twin chairs.

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The puzzle pieces are fashioned to form the twin chairs Image: Courtesy of Yuji Tanabe
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Making of the chair design Image: Courtesy of Yuji Tanabe

Tanabe created the share chairs first in 2004 using steel. As a prompt response to generating less waste, yielding better outputs, and also catering to the present-day dwellings that are often vertically stacked and commercially sized, the Tokyo-based designer worked in the direction of creating chairs that would not just take less space but would also exhaust the resources efficiently. The Twins-MDF chairs are the result of the Japanese designer’s in-depth study of medium density fiberboard trimmings, using which he designed chairs that, despite their textural and structural differences, provide the same level of comfort for their users. He creatively calls the chairs 'Twins’ because of the complimenting nature they hold.

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Joinery details Image: Courtesy of Yuji Tanabe

In order to achieve the high yielding rate of 70%, Yuji Tanabe and his team worked towards creating extremely few offcuts of a standard 4 ft. by 8 ft. MDF board. Furthermore, with the cutting-edge technology of EMARF’s shopbot—a wooden furniture production service—they planned the structural elements of the two chairs onto the board in such a way that each piece could be extracted as a puzzle piece, only to be put together in different arrangements to form the two chairs or even a bench.

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Framing and surfacing the twin chairs Image: Courtesy of Yuji Tanabe

Using a subtle mix of precision-cut masses and voids, the frame chair is created using the frames, while the surface chair is created using the surfaces from the same board space. For instance, the backboard of the surface chair is extracted from the inside of the frame chair’s backboard. Furthermore, each chair's back plate may be connected laterally to form a bench because of the unevenness that is present. By utilising MDF in various colours, it is also feasible to make each component stand out like a sequence. The design of the Twins-MDF expands even further with the scope of creating tiny decorative pieces using the residue of the MDF board, all of which can be easily dismantled and engrained into a single unit. Realistically, only two chairs are functional; the other two pieces remain sculptural pieces, perfect for an imaginary tea party.

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CNC-cut board for creating the chairs Image: Courtesy of Yuji Tanabe
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The Twins-MDF chairs as a rendition of the Twins-steel chairs Image: Courtesy of Yuji Tanabe

The design of the Twins-MDF chairs is such that it doesn't require permanent nail-driving to hold fast. The grooves are so artistically cut that each piece can perfectly be joined to the other in order to create the chair. Though the likelihood of someone repeating the process of arranging and dismantling the chair for functional purposes is low, given that MDF is sustainable but slightly heavier in nature, the option of saving space comes in handy with Tanabe’s design. Yuji Tanabe, based in Tokyo, Japan, completed his Master’s degree in Architecture from Shibaura Institute of Technology. He has practised as an architect and industrial designer for over two decades, with projects ranging from hotels, museums, private residences, and furniture pieces.

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