Ply Tree

This work originates from a poplar trunk measuring about 1.6 m in diameter, from which a 230 cm block was extracted, sliced into 0.8 mm veneers, and reassembled in order over a mold. By layering 280 irregular contours, it reconstructs solid wood that bends at a calculated angle.

Trees inherently root into the earth and rise toward the sky, evoking power beyond human scale. Milling them into standardized forms allows control, yet erases their spatial and temporal vastness and disconnects us from the larger world they once embodied. Without passing through this conventional process, the piece retains the tree’s original irregularity while granting it human functionality.

It subtly reminds us that the relationship between people and the world—long divided by efficiency and technique—has always been fundamentally continuous.

UO

UO

UO is a design studio based in Shizuoka, founded in 2013 by Yu Matsuda and Yuichiro Tani.

Through client work with a variety of domestic and international companies and organizations, as well as independent projects, we seek to explore the meaning and value needed in society in the future and work to implement them in society by providing feedback on each other’s activities.

EXHIBITION / AWARD
  • Good Design Award
  • German Design Award
  • Red Dot Design Award
  • Bungu Award
  • Bunboguya-san Taisho
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