FUTURE MEMORIES is a collection of sculptural objects designed for the historic Japanese carpentry firm SANSUI.
Based in Omachi in the mountains of central Japan, the workshop preserves a collection of more than 5,000 reclaimed beams from traditional Japanese architecture.

Crafted from wooden beams salvaged from Kominka (traditional Japanese folk houses) before their demolition and replacement with anonymous residential units, the project highlights the philosophical and cultural significance of Japanese vernacular architecture that embodies a design ethos rooted in coexistence between humans and nature, where each entity permeates and interrelates with the others.

The centuries-old beams that give shape to the collection reveal the sophistication of traditional Japanese carpentry: the grooves carved by the Chōna axes that once breathed form into raw trunks, and the refined Kigumi joinery which connects wooden elements through a complex system of joints without the use of metal fasteners. Each wooden element carries a unique patina, telling stories of use and aging—transforming matter into memory.

FUTURE MEMORIES establishes a dialogue between natural and artificial: time-worn, hand-carved wooden beams are mirrored in precise, rigorous polished-steel surfaces, which multiply perspectives and reveal hidden details. Time becomes tangible, evoking the philosophical and aesthetic principles of ancient Japan.

By merging Shinto principles where natural elements are believed to possess a soul, with the aesthetic and philosophical insights of the Mingei movement which celebrates the artistic value of everyday objects shaped within rural and craft traditions, FUTURE MEMORIES positions itself as an active agent in contemporary design, prompting new reflections on the nature of things.

The project reinterprets the beams recovered from Kominka as hyperobjects —outcomes of a metamorphic process in which the tree is first transformed into an architectural element and, once reduced to ruins and stripped of its function, becomes a cultural artifact: extensive and timeless. Through this metamorphosis, with time as the essential catalyst, new possibilities arise from the remnants of the past, revealing novel ways of engaging with the future.