106 - KAZUHIDE TAKAHAMA (Nobeoka, Japan, 1930 – Bologna, 2010) for Cassina

KAZUHIDE TAKAHAMA (Nobeoka, Japan, 1930 – Bologna, 2010) for Cassina Four “Tulu” chairs. Metal. They still have their tags. Measurements: 77.5 x 50 x 48 cm (x4). Set of four Italian-designed chairs, conceived by Kazuhide Takahama in 1968 and originally produced by Simon, the firm founded by Dino Gavina. The Tulu model is a notable example of the formal and technical experimentation that characterized furniture design in the late 1960s. In 2013, Cassina acquired Simon International and added a selection of its historic designs to its catalog, including the Tulu, whose manufacturing process has been revised and refined with contemporary solutions. Kazuhide Takahama, a Japanese architect and designer. Born in 1930, he studied architecture in Tokyo and, after graduating, joined Kazuo Fujioka’s studio. In 1957, he traveled to Italy to oversee the architectural layout of the pavilion with which Japan participated for the first time in the 11th Triennale di Milano, where he met the designer and entrepreneur Dino Gavina (1922–2007), with whom he began a professional collaboration. This collaboration would last a lifetime. Consequently, in 1964 he moved to Bologna and began working as a furniture and lamp designer at the San Lazzaro factory.In 1968, Gavina sold his company, Gavina SPA, to Knoll International, along with its Foligno plant designed by Achille Castiglioni, and, together with Maria Simoncini (1927–2010), founded the manufacturer Simon International (later acquired by Cassina), and a year later, the exhibition and commercial center named after Marcel Duchamp opened in Bologna with the participation of the famous Dadaist painter and photographer Man Ray.In these new offices, Takahama was able to collaborate with the renowned architect and designer Carlo Scarpa, and in the following years he pursued an intense professional career that led to the creation of various types of furniture and lamps, which still stand as works of art, always characterized by great simplicity and formal clarity—and very often as rigorous as Zen compositions. His colleagues said he was so quiet that they called him “the man of stone,” but his presence was clearly perceptible. Takahama continued his work as a designer until his death in 2010.