SEASONS COVO

Can an industrial material carry the life cycle of a leaf?

In Japan, where I grew up, spring is a time when Japanese sweets come wrapped in cherry leaves. In summer, a ripe tomato is carved out and used as a serving bowl. In autumn, maple leaves decorate the dinner table. In winter, bamboo sets the scene. Food and season were always inseparable.

SEASONS started from that memory—and from a more practical one: I wanted a plate my mother couldn’t break. In my family’s kitchen, every dish was chipped. So each dish is a leaf cast in silicone—a young leaf, or a fallen one. It rolls up for storage, goes in the oven, the microwave, the dishwasher. Stacked, they look like a pile of leaves.

Objects live in that cycle too.

Created independently for the inaugural SaloneSatellite Award in 2010, where it won first prize, SEASONS has been in production with COVO since 2011 and has sold through the MoMA Design Store. Fifteen years later, the leaves are still made—my first question, still in motion.

Seasons is part of the SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection, housed at the Artwood Academy in Lentate sul Seveso, Italy.