The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2023–2024
HONOKA's TATAMI ReFAB turns waste tatami into 3D-printed furniture
Discarded tatami and igusa grass are mixed with biodegradable resin and 3D-printed into furniture — SaloneSatellite 2023 first prize, iF Gold 2024.
HONOKA · ExtraBold
What it had to solve
Tatami has floored Japanese rooms for centuries, but modern lifestyles have pushed the mats out of daily life, leaving the material to be discarded. HONOKA, a volunteer lab of product designers, wanted to carry tatami's fragrance, texture and patterns to the next generation.
How it works
Tatami has floored Japanese rooms for centuries, but modern lifestyles have pushed the mats out of daily life, leaving the craft and its materials to be discarded. HONOKA, a volunteer design lab of Japanese product designers, asked how the tradition could reach the next generation instead of being thrown away.
The answer was to treat the waste as a raw material: the lab mixed discarded tatami and igusa rush — the grass tatami is made from — with biodegradable resin, and used ExtraBold's large-format 3D printers to re-weave it into furniture. Shown at SaloneSatellite in Milan in 2023, the series includes stools, a basin, lighting and vases in a knitted tatami-resin that keeps tatami's scent, moisture-regulating character and pattern language.
The collection won the SaloneSatellite Award 2023 First Prize before an international jury led by MoMA senior curator Paola Antonelli, then added the iF Design Award 2024 Gold and German Design Award 2024 Gold. It has since been exhibited in six countries, including Italy.
Why it lands
- The project reframes a vanishing tradition's waste — discarded mats and production offcuts — as a valuable raw material.
- Mixing igusa grass with biodegradable resin preserves tatami's scent, humidity control and patterns inside new objects.
- Large-format 3D printing lets the team create knitted, plant-like forms that no traditional manufacturing method could produce.
- Tatami's traditional motifs — sensuji, asanoha, tachiwaki — become the furniture's design language, carrying the craft visually as well as materially.
- A first prize at SaloneSatellite in front of a MoMA-led jury launched the project onto the global design stage.
What it did
The collection won the SaloneSatellite Award 2023 First Prize before an international jury led by MoMA curator Paola Antonelli, then the iF Design Award 2024 Gold and German Design Award 2024 Gold, and has been exhibited in six countries including Italy.
What you can take
A dying craft is a material opportunity: treat the waste of a tradition as a raw material and the heritage becomes the innovation rather than the obstacle.
Since then
TATAMI ReFAB went from a Milan fair debut to three top design awards: SaloneSatellite 2023 First Prize, iF Design Award 2024 Gold and German Design Award 2024 Gold, with exhibitions in six countries. The project also drew attention to ExtraBold's large-format printing and IKEHIKO's century-old tatami craft, showing how a small design lab can turn an industry's waste stream into an exportable design language.
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