Tokujin Yoshioka was born in Japan in 1967 and, after having studied at length with Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake, in 2000 set up his studio, Tokujin Yoshioka Design, in Tokyo.
His partnership with Issey Miyake has been in existence for over 20 years. Tokujin Yoshioka has taken part in a number of projects by the fashion designer, designing among other things Issey Miyake and A-POC stores and producing the installation entitled Issey Miyake Making Things for the Cartier foundation in Paris, achieving international fame.
Tokujin Yoshioka came to the Milan furniture show for the first time in 2002, presenting the chairs Honey Pop and Tokyo Pop for Driade.
Again for Driade, in the same year, he designed an extraordinary installation, transforming the entire space, in the heart of Milan, into a futuristic Japanese garden.
His other projects include the TOFU lamp produced for Yamagiwa, the STARDUST chandelier designed for Swarovski Crystal Palace, shop windows for Hermes and the Toyota stand at the Tokyo motor show.
One of the most recent and interesting experimental design works by Tokujin Yoshioka is the Pane Chair presented at last year's Milan furniture show.
The name comes from the production process of the chair, similar to baking bread. The material is inserted in a mould and, as when bread is baked, placed in an oven. The fibres stiffen and memorise the shape of the mould through the effect of the heat. At the end of "cooking" the finished chair is taken out.
The Pane Chair played a major role at the exhibition Tokujin Yoshioka x Lexus L-Finesse - Evolving Fiber Technology, staged at the Museo della Permanente in Milan. On that occasion Tokujin Yoshioka created an installation with more than 7000 km of optical fibres, transforming the space into a giant lens.
In the autumn of 2006 he presented his solo exhibition entitled Tokujin Yoshioka - Super Fiber Revolution, at the Axis gallery in Tokyo, seen as the completion of his research and experimental study of materials. Concurrently the British publishers Phaidon published the monograph book entitled Tokujin Yoshioka Design, distributed worldwide, which describes his experimental design, always in pursuit of new possibilities for future developments.
Tokujin Yoshioka has received a number of awards and his works are displayed in the permanent collections of the most prestigious museums in the world: the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Vitra Design Museum in Berlin and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
