Italian brand Porro, a fourth-generation family business specialising in customisable modular furniture systems, is both proud of its Italian heritage and roots in the manufacturing hotspot that is Brianza, and keen to tap the brightest design talent from around the world. One of its newest collaborators is the award-winning Japanese designer Nao Tamura, a Parsons School of Design alumna who lives and works in Brooklyn.
Her ‘Origata’ bench, although monolithic in appearance, is inspired by the process of making kimonos (a craft close to home for Tamura, whose grandmother founded a clothing line in the 1940s). To create the traditional Japanese garment, a rectangular piece of fabric is cut in straight lines and then sewn together with little to no waste – a method replicated in the making of this bench, with a sheet of aluminium carefully cut and assembled to waste as little metal as possible.
