Connect Chair is a minimal chair created by Korea-based designer Yeonsu Na in collaboration with Japan-based designer Komoto Natsumi. The chair emerges from a fascinating confluence of circumstances and expertise. Created for Switzerland’s pavilion at the Osaka World Expo 2025, it represents a thoughtful response to a specific brief: furnishing the lightweight, bubble-inspired architecture of Manuel Herz with stackable wooden seating that would embody the spirit of Swiss-Japanese cooperation.

What makes this piece particularly compelling is how it navigates the tension between two distinct design traditions. The clean, functional lines speak to Switzerland’s legacy of precision and restraint, while the subtle warmth of the wood and the emphasis on joinery techniques reveals a Japanese sensibility. The chair doesn’t merely reference these traditions—it synthesizes them into something genuinely new.

The material choice—wood by Karimoku New Standard—is significant not just aesthetically but environmentally. The company is known for utilizing smaller-diameter trees from Japan’s managed forests, typically overlooked by other manufacturers. This approach transforms what might be considered “waste” into objects of enduring value, an ethos that aligns perfectly with both Swiss and Japanese approaches to sustainability.

In its formal language, the chair performs a delicate balancing act. The semi-circular backrest provides both structural integrity and visual lightness, while the subtle curve of the seat offers ergonomic comfort without unnecessary embellishment. When arranged in groups, the chairs create a rhythmic pattern that encourages social interaction—the backrests forming that distinctive S-curve that symbolizes connection across cultural boundaries.

The project reveals how design education can function as cultural diplomacy. ECAL’s Master Product Design students, working under faculty guidance and in partnership with Karimoku, have created an object that functions simultaneously as practical seating and as a material embodiment of cross-cultural exchange. The chair doesn’t just serve the Switzerland Pavilion; it manifests its underlying message.