DDP · duties included · 8–12 weeks
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i2026 WINNER · ENWA ISHI STOOL
WHAT IS THE SIT AWARD?
The SIT Furniture Design Award is one of the world's leading international furniture design prizes — judged by a global panel across residential, contract and craft. The Ishi was named a 2026 winner.
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A stool is the simplest seating there is — a surface at sitting height. So in our architecture practice we kept asking: why does a stool need legs? We removed them. We removed the decoration. We removed even the appearance of weight — until what remained was one quiet volume that meets the body.
Ishi wasn't designed. It was uncovered.
Impossibly thin from across the room. Substantial under the hand. It looks like it might tip. It won't.
A veneer is a skin — the grain is printed on the surface, flat, and stops there. When the form curves, the grain only bends around it. Solid oak does what a skin can't: as we shape the curve and polish the surface back, the grain reveals itself differently at every point of the bend — opening, tightening, catching the light along the slope.
The beauty isn't on the wood. It's in it.
A single log splits and cups as the seasons turn. So we refused to use one. Ishi is panel-built from combined solid boards — grain laid against grain — so it holds its form for generations instead of cracking to prove it was one piece.
Where the top surface meets the seat, most solid construction shows its hand. We resolve that meeting so cleanly it reads almost jointless — even in solid panel. The difficulty is invisible. That's the point.
We chose permanence over the easy story.
Two honest comparisons: how dense the cushion foam is, and how long solid oak lasts against veneer.
At 430 mm and ≈8 kg, Ishi moves through the day with you — a low seat on the floor, a stool at the table, a surface beside the sofa.
UPHOLSTERY · ENWA-01
Select a textile to send it to the configurator — or leave the oak bare.
Before it is an object, it is a place to sit. The 430 mm height meets the body the way a good chair does — low, easy, unhurried.
Made to be lived with — not just looked at.
Beside a steaming bath with snow beyond the glass. At a mountain bedside, holding a cup and a book. In a sunlit corner where the day settles. Ishi doesn't announce itself in any of them — it lets the room speak first.
A form that asks nothing of the room — and belongs to all of them.
Before a single cut, the oak is kiln-dried twice over nineteen days — because moisture is the enemy of a clean joint. Every joint is tested with a flashlight: if light passes through, it isn't done. The curve is machined to a computed profile, then every edge hand-shaped to match.
The work you can't see is the reason for the work you can.
Yes, the Ishi Stool works perfectly as both a stool and a side table. The 430mm height pairs well with sofas and lounge chairs.
Each piece is made to order. Lead time is 8–12 weeks from order to delivery — eight weeks factory build, the balance for sea freight and last-mile delivery. We keep you updated throughout.
Yes — DDP delivery to 34 countries (US, Europe, Middle East, Japan, Asia Pacific). Shipping and import duties are calculated at checkout. No surprise charges at delivery.
Visit our Tokyo showroom by appointment. Contact us to schedule a viewing where you can experience the craftsmanship firsthand.
The Ishi is panel-built from combined solid North American oak boards — not cut from one log. Its continuous exterior curve is digitally designed, machined to the computed profile, and resolved by hand so it reads as one calm form: stool, side table, or quiet sculptural object.
Solid wood. The Ishi Stool is made entirely from solid North American white oak (FAS grade, ~1,350 lbf Janka hardness) — never veneer, MDF, or engineered board. It is panel-built from combined solid boards, kiln-dried and sealed at 9–10% moisture for long-term stability.
The Ishi Stool is designed by Mililab, an architecture and design studio based in Tokyo, Japan, as part of its ENWA collection of eight solid-oak pieces. Mililab applies the same edge geometry it uses in architecture to furniture — precise from a distance, soft under the hand — and ships direct, DDP, to 34 countries.
