AtMa inc.
The Netherlands
At COLLECTIBLE New York, AtMa Inc. will present J39.5, a series of chairs created by reassembling parts of Borge Mogensen’s iconic J39 chairs. The project began when they discovered damaged J39 chairs at a vintage furniture warehouse, including one with a missing leg and a cracked backrest. Instead of discarding these pieces, AtMa Inc. chose to honor Mogensen's original design by creatively reconfiguring the remaining parts, rather than adding new materials. This innovative approach, termed "0.5 design," emphasizes sustainability and redefines the value of objects that have lost their function, encouraging a more active and thoughtful relationship with furniture.
AtMa inc. is a creative unit established in 2013 by Makoto Suzuki, an interior designer, and Ayumi Koyama, an artist.The studio specialised in spatial design for fashion retail, cafes, restaurants, window displays, installations, as well as product design, furniture design, and creative direction for apartments for clients. Recently, their practices have expanded to self-initiated projects on social issues and running their own space, “COM”. COM is an interactive commons which opens daily as a cafe, occasionally as a gallery, and more. An investigation to design a process of creating, enriching, and developing an ecosystem around them by expressing their philosophy, ideas, and interests in a physical space, collaborating with artists, and sharing this with people. AtMa's strength lies in its three axes—client work, self-initiated projects, and running their own space—which each feed into the other, and these axes enable deeper exploration with multiple perspectives.