Rising Star

Born and raised in Japan, educated in France and domiciled in Italy, Keiji Takeuchi is a prime example of the new generation of global designer.

- Catherine Belbin

Globalism is rife in design – as it is in many industries today – and so Takeuchi was an obvious choice to join the multi-racial international id Design Awards 2018 jury, which is headed by Marco Piva and includes Roberto and Ludovica Polomba and Jean-Philippe Nuel. From his Milan base, Takeuchi – a protégé of Giulio Cappellini – is fast building up an impressive portfolio of clients that includes Italian firms Boffi, De Padova and US manufacturer Herman Miller (Geiger).

During the recent Salone International del Mobile, id caught up with him at the launch of his debut collection for Italy’s premier brand Living Divani, which recently opened a new boutique in Dubai Design District (d3).

Born in Fukuoka, Takeuchi is aware that he is one of a new breed of international designers active in Milan – a world design capital. However, in recent years Italy has acted as an incubator and nurturer of foreign designers, not only indigenous ones.

“It’s very hard for me to say what it’s like to be Japanese and living in Italy, as I only have one identity and that’s myself,” he says.

“I think that Japan and Italy have very common cultures, such as when you compare food culture. In Japan for example, we eat raw fish with soy sauce and here in Italy they eat it with olive oil. I think that the mentality is quite similar. Both of us enjoy the pure expression of materials and ingredients and try not to overkill the original flavour,” he adds.

“Cooking is very similar to design, and that culture is visible through cooking, so in that sense there is no difference whether I’m here or in Japan. However, being in Italy is much more dynamic and very fluid.

Japan is more controlled and calmer, whereas in Italy the effervescent creative bubbles are everywhere. Therefore, the stimulus here is quite different,” he says, grinning.