Rio Kobayashi turns traditional furniture making on its head

During London Design Festival 2023, Rio Kobayashi presented Manus Manum Lavat at Cromwell Place: the Austrian-Japanese designer’s first solo show, it was also an exhibition where every piece on display was made in collaboration with a designer friend, or artisan, or material specialist. Featuring furniture, lighting and objects, the exhibition offered an overview of Kobayashi’s widespread approach to design and making. 

Rio kobayashi: an eclectic, creative upbringing

Kobayashi credits a lot of his creative approach to his childhood, having grown up in the pottery town of Mashiko, Japan with ‘hippie parents’ (Japanese and Austrian/Tyrolean artisans and makers). His parents self-build their home, and added over the years as he and his siblings grew up. 

‘Making was always part of my life,’ he explains. ‘If I wanted a toy, my parents would send me to the workshop suggesting I’d try to make it myself.’ He recalls his first designs as being a series of clay dinosaurs (‘I wanted these plastic dinosaurs, and they thought I’d do a much better job making them myself’). ‘I was also making arrows and bows, using materials from the bamboo forest behind our house, it was quite wild. After having travelled to a lot of places, I can now see that it was a very special thing.’

Growing up, he was also influenced by popular culture, from music to foreign cars and skate culture, which he was exposed to through a favourite teacher at school. Spotting his teacher’s apartment interiors in a design magazine got him curious about design as a discipline. 

‘I was so fascinated by his mid-century furniture, iconic pieces by Eames, Panton, Noguchi. That’s the point when I found out that design was also a job.’ From there, he moved to Austria to live with his grandmother for a period of time, and it there that he did an apprenticeship with a furniture maker (which he credits to what he calls the ‘grandma network’). 

Between designing and making

Kobayashi's furniture making training is evident in his pristine woodwork, injected with colour and unexpected details that reveal glimpses into his multicultural background and informal design approach. ‘All my works are inspired by all these cultural differences and the mix of things that have surrounded me all my life,’ he says. ‘I mix clichés, things I find funny, it’s a whole journey, and I always follow something that excites me.'

He admits still feeling more like a maker than a designer, the materials and techniques driving his work. 'I think I will never feel like I'm a designer, I've never learned professionally how to design, I always looked at what other people do, and tried to figure out what I liked.' 

The exhibition in London was an uplifting representation of Kobayashi's approach to furniture, his eclectic aesthetic, and how he values collaboration. Held at Cromwell Place, the exhibition was titled Manus Manum Lavat (a Latin phrase meaning 'one hand washes the other'), and featured hand-shaped soaps with Bethan Laura Wood, a tuna-shaped table painted by artist James Hague, a duo of speakers in collaboration with Wiener Lautsprecher Manufaktur and a modular sofa designer in collaboration with Flavia Braendle and with textiles by Peter Pilotto. 

Kobayashi is now expanding the scope of his work, having taken part to the JB Blunk Estate's 100 Hooks exhibition and having collaborated with Koivu on a series of embroidered jumpers. ’Your life is just collaborations, you cannot do anything without it,’ he says, referencing his general approach to design. ‘Collaboration is about experience, atmosphere, showing life instead of just pieces.’

riokobayashi.com