Chair model "August"
Manufactured by Uchida Design Studio
Japan, 1990s
Lacquered wood

Measurements
80 × 46 × 66h cm
31,5 × 18,1 × 26h in

Provenance
Hotel Il Palazzo guest rooms, Fukuoka, Japan

About
The "August" chair was specially designed by renowned Japanese designer Shigeru Uchida for Hotel Il Palazzo in Fukuoka, Japan’s first designer hotel, which opened in 1990. Uchida played a pivotal role in the hotel's interior concept, alongside Ettore Sottsass, who contributed to the reception design. The hotel quickly became a symbol of the urban renaissance of post-bubble Japan and a milestone in Japanese design history.

Biography
Shigeru Uchida (1943–2016) was a defining figure of post-war Japanese design, whose prolific output shaped a distinctly modern yet deeply reflective aesthetic. Born in Yokohama and educated at the Kuwasawa Design School, Uchida went on to direct the institution and establish Studio 80 in 1981, marking the beginning of a multifaceted career spanning interior architecture, furniture, industrial design, and urban planning.
A key concern in Uchida’s work was the dialogue between Japanese spatial philosophy and contemporary global design. His furniture, in particular, embodies a search for “transparency and lightness that transcends physicality,” reflecting his belief that form should almost disappear in order to let space breathe. His iconic September chair (1977) exemplifies this vision through its delicate geometry, steel structure, and open mesh seat—an exploration of presence through absence.
Uchida stood at the intersection of design and cultural discourse. In Japan, he was closely aligned with creatives like Shiro Kuramata and Yohji Yamamoto, while internationally, he shared affinities with figures such as Ettore Sottsass, Aldo Rossi, and Gaetano Pesce. Through these relationships, he became an influential voice in the postmodern movement, shaping an approach that valued restraint, ambiguity, and material poetry.
Beyond his acclaimed interiors for Yohji Yamamoto boutiques and institutions like the Kobe Fashion Museum, Uchida also delved into philosophical investigations through the design of contemporary tea houses and experimental architecture. His work is represented in major collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and SFMOMA.
A noted design theorist as well as practitioner, Uchida wrote extensively on Japanese aesthetics, the body’s relationship to space, and the poetics of the everyday. His legacy endures in both his objects and his thought—quiet, rigorous, and deeply attuned to the subtleties of form and life.