Japanese Street Vendor Stool

This intriguing utilitarian design is at home most anywhere.

- Dillon Baker

As a curious designer I often find myself frequenting estate sales, online auctions and even local antique stores in search of oddities and relics of the past. This exercise affords me the opportunity to be exploratory in my quest for inspiration and has become a practice that remains integral in the overall design process. The act of seeking without presumption allows one to experience new pieces through an unadulterated lens. This method has also proven itself to be an effective way to develop a historical connection with pieces and to appreciate the zeitgeist of any given period.

It’s this exact process that led me to discover a set of 19th-century Japanese street vendor stools on a British auction site. Initially frustrated by my inability to discover any sort of historical context or provenance for such a piece, my focus soon became directed towards its simple aesthetic and form. I instantly became drawn to the stool’s intimacy of scale/proportion. The angularity of their shape combined with a straightforward construction method made this not only an approachable project from a build perspective, but one that can easily be integrated into any space.

Preparing the Panels