Staff meeting

A gathering of walking sticks and canes, arranged by Keiji Takeuchi, offers new ways of stepping out

- DANIELLE DEMETRIOU

'It's not possible to go back in time to the very first cane. We can only imagine it started with someone picking up a small branch, trimming off the smaller twigs, and using it for a walk in the woods.'

Japanese designer Keiji Takeuchi's musings on walking sticks - simple in form, yet complex in the nuanced layers of its associations with ageing today - form the foundation for a project exploring a spectrum of personal takes on the object.

Takeuchi, based in Milan since 2012, asked 17 designer friends around the world  among them, Cecilie Manz, Pierre Charpin, Jasper Morrison and Marialaura Irvine  a seemingly simple question: what kind of walking stick would they wish to use themselves?

The end result was 'Walking Sticks & Canes', staged at Triennale during Milan Design Week. It showcased Takeuchi and his friends' interpretations of the object, each with its own unique personality expressed through material, shape and form.

'A number of years ago, I was thinking a lot about what design is, about how it should be approachable for everyone and about creativity, not money,' explains Takeuchi.

'I wanted to create an icon for these thoughts.

I like things that are simple and primitive, universal and purposeful. Then I remembered my grandfather's walking stick. And I began to notice more and more people in Milan walking on cobblestones with walking sticks.

'In the past, walking sticks were primitive objects. Moses had a stick in the Bible.