KANSO HBF

How little does it take to give someone a world of their own?

At the Whitney Museum, I watched my mother sit down on a sofa between two strangers. She chose the middle seat because the divisions were already there. One sofa, three people, three separate spaces.

That moment became KANSO. In 2016, HBF asked for furniture for casual, collaborative work; my answer was a system of soft planes floating at different heights, where the divisions between seats define without dividing. A shift in level, a small round table—boundaries light enough to invite, firm enough to protect. The surfaces belong to HBF’s greatest strength, their own textile program, so each client dresses the piece their way.

Introduced at NeoCon in Chicago in 2017, KANSO is held in two U.S. design patents and remains in HBF’s collection nine years on. Each person finds their own space within the whole—sharing begins the moment everyone can hold a space of their own.

The same question later traveled with me to a public toilet in Shibuya—THE TOKYO TOILET.