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Designer
Kensaku Oshiro
Kensaku Oshiro was born in 1977 on Okinawa Island, Japan, and spent his formative years in Japan before moving to Italy. His own site says he took a master's degree in industrial design at the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan in 1999.…
Biography
Background
Kensaku Oshiro was born in 1977 on Okinawa Island, Japan, and spent his formative years in Japan before moving to Italy. His own site says he took a master's degree in industrial design at the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan in 1999. From 2004 to 2012 he worked at Lissoni Associati in Milan, then from 2012 to 2015 at Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby in London, and in 2015 he founded his studio in Milan.
Signature Style
The site says his approach focuses on understanding the core values of the relevant culture and environment and on bringing them out. Each project is a challenge to be solved on its own terms, reducing limitless possibilities to a single ideal solution. Drawing on a multicultural experience, his work spans product design, architectural projects, high-quality craftsmanship and industrial-scale production.
Notable Works
His site's project list names, among others, Iren (2021), Elsa, Holo Pillar, Sweepy, Arabesque, Lepli, Sen and Brix. Poltrona Frau's page for the Iren desk presents him as designer of that desk, a small domestic workstation with a sliding top, and the studio lists Poltrona Frau, B&B Italia, Boffi, Ligne Roset, Muji and Zanotta among its clients.
Legacy
He won the Design Report Award at Salone Satellite in 2006 and the Cristalplant and GandiaBlasco design contests in 2012. Later recognitions on his site include the Rising Talent Award Italy in 2018, an iF Design Award Gold and a German Design Award in 2023, and Archiproducts Design Awards in 2022 to 2025.
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Collections
Products
Lemante
Glass-topped small tables built on two squares offset by 45 degrees
Lepli Outdoor 121x45 Ottoman
An elongated Leplì Outdoor ottoman with woven sides, a closed sprung top and aluminium plinth.
Lepli 106x106 Ottoman
A 106 cm square Leplì ottoman with a central button, four pleats and a banded base.
Lepli 121x45 Ottoman
The elongated Leplì ottoman, offered at h37 as a standard or soft-closing storage version.
Lepli Chair
A compact upholstered side chair with fixed, concealed-wheel or auto-return swivel bases.
Lepli 39x39 Ottoman
A compact 39 cm Leplì ottoman whose decorative band encircles the middle like a belt.
Lepli Outdoor 106x106 Ottoman
The 106 cm square Leplì Outdoor ottoman, woven over aluminium with a closed sprung seat surface.
Lepli Outdoor 39x39 Ottoman
The compact Leplì Outdoor stool with a braided waist band, central grip and woven aluminium body.
Lepli Small Armchair
The wider Leplì seat with an enveloping padded back and three concealed base mechanisms.
Iren Freestanding Desk
Oshiro's Iren freestanding desk for Poltrona Frau: a sliding leather top on an ash trestle base.
Iren Wall Desk
Iren wall desk by Kensaku Oshiro: two stacked leather tops that slide, on solid ash.
