Tokyo, Japan

Designed by Satoshi Itasaka from the Tokyo studio of H220430, Fungi Stool highlights the importance of preserving fungi decomposers that play a crucial role in our ecosystem.

The chair also proposes a more sustainable direction for furniture design. 

The seat is made up of a circle of six discs that resemble mushroom caps huddled next to each other.

The stool is composed of stainless steel, wood, and fungi that grow and bloom, like flowers, into mushrooms.

According to Itasaka: “It is no exaggeration to say that the cycles of nature are carried out by bacteria and fungi.”

“Bacteria and fungi have been the decomposers in the food chain keeping the earth’s environment in a healthy state.”

“They are the ones we should follow for we are constantly putting a burden on the earth in terms of the global environment.”

“There are about 100 trillion bacteria in our bodies. The total number of human cells is about 37 trillion,” Itasaka continues.

“Therefore, we live in symbiosis with about three times as many bacteria as our own cells.”

“Although we are sometimes tormented by bacteria, the environment in which we live would not be possible without decomposers such as fungi and bacteria,” the designer continues.

“The world is in the midst of a sanitization boom, but I designed a device to learn more about these decomposers, not to get rid of them. I found that the fungi grew unexpectedly in that apparatus.” 

“The fungi grew and blossomed like flowers, producing numerous beautiful mushrooms.”

Project: Fungi Stool
Designers: H220430
Lead Designer: Satoshi Itasaka
Photographers: the design labo