Azukimé is a minimalist chair located created by France and London-based practice Studio Halvor. Few material transitions in furniture design reveal as much about a studio’s evolving philosophy as the shift from wood to metal. When Studio Halvor first introduced their Azuki chair, its wooden construction spoke a familiar language of warmth and craft. Azukimé takes that foundation and recasts it entirely in riveted bent aluminum – a move that does not simply update the material palette but fundamentally reimagines the object’s character, weight, and domestic presence.
The construction method itself carries significance. Riveted bent aluminum sheet is a technique with deep roots in industrial and aeronautical fabrication, where the logic of folding flat stock into three-dimensional forms prioritizes structural efficiency over ornamental expression. Studio Halvor applies this industrial vocabulary at a domestic scale, allowing each fold and rivet to remain legible on the finished surface. The result is a chair that wears its making openly, each junction a small declaration of how the form came to be. This transparency of construction recalls the honest materialism championed by Jean Prouvé, whose sheet metal furniture similarly refused to disguise its origins in the workshop.
The low-slung proportions distinguish Azukimé from its wooden predecessor in ways that extend beyond aesthetics. A generous width and reduced seat height shift the body into a more reclined, unhurried posture – closer to a lounge position than a conventional sitting arrangement. These unusual proportions create a visual presence that reads as simultaneously grounded and expansive, occupying space with a quiet authority that belies the lightness of aluminum as a material. The painted finish adds another layer of remove from the raw metal, softening its industrial associations while preserving the crisp geometry that bent sheet stock naturally produces.
