Takuto Ohta Turns 200 Cedar Logs into Furniture

Japanese designer Takuto Ohta explores the afterlife of temporary architecture through a project called 'log x', which utilizes approximately 200 Yoshino cedar logs originally featured in an exhibition. Sourced from Nara Prefecture, the timber had been milled with a deliberate kerf designed to reduce cracking as the wood dried. Once the installation concluded, the logs were left without a clear purpose. Ohta acquired the entire batch, including all its irregularities, and brought it to SKWAT in Kameari, Tokyo, to initiate a two-month design experiment.

Rather than beginning with a predetermined collection, Ohta worked directly with the available timber, testing cutting, joining, and assembly techniques to discover what each piece could become. This hands-on process eventually produced around 50 pieces of functional furniture, while the remaining logs continued to inhabit the space in a less finished state. Logs arranged at regular intervals beside the adjacent cafe served simultaneously as visitor seating and raw material awaiting workshop entry, functioning as furniture, stockpile, and prototype all at once.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

The project developed through an intentionally immediate cycle of making. Forms and construction methods discovered through practical experimentation were rapidly applied to other logs, allowing the collection to evolve through repetition rather than a fixed set of blueprints. The existing dimensions, kerfs, and inconsistencies of the cedar functioned as active design parameters, with each new intervention responding directly to the material at hand.