“It all starts with the level.” A sheet of paper, a skin, a film of resin is all, at rest, without direction. “From an apartment” is the solo exhibition he presents Ryota Yokozeki at horse riders performance, presented during Milan Design Week 2026which explores the infinite possibilities that open up when you make a simple sheet of material become three-dimensional.
The research is presented through a set of new lifestyle objects developed through direct material experimentation, proving to be typically diverse and highly creative. It is more than just a production demonstration. the show develops an ongoing argument about the relationship between material and form, and about what the transition requires from the designer who initiates it.
From Flat © Shunsuke Watanabe
From Flat © Shunsuke Watanabe
From Flat © Shunsuke Watanabe
From Flat © Shunsuke Watanabe
From Flat © Shunsuke Watanabe
From Flat © Shunsuke Watanabe
From Flat © Shunsuke Watanabe
From Flat © Shunsuke Watanabe
From Flat © Shunsuke Watanabe
From Flat, Ryota Yokozeki:
The designer
Ryota Yokozeki is no stranger to this kind of experimentation. Born in Japan in 1985, he spent a decade as an industrial designer at Sony, a stint that shaped his understanding of precision, engineering constraints and design for scale manufacturing. In 2017, he founded his own studio and independent work allowed him to follow what the corporate framework could not always accommodate: experimentation as a primary mode, a spirit of exploration.
The designer traces the roots of the project to something autobiographical and cultural. “As a Japanese, I have been familiar with origami since childhood. Creating something three-dimensional from a flat sheet has always remained one of the most instinctive and fundamental ways for me to create.” The Japanese manufacturing tradition is structurally different from European conventions, which usually work from solid materials such as stone carving or clay kneading. Origami gesture is in contrast additive, combinatorial and reversible, while Western ways are more abstract and dominant.
The exhibition
The central objects of the show are a pair of lamps developed through different material logics. The first is made from sheets of white paper, folded and etched into round volumes that diffuse light with a soft, almost organic quality. As shown in the process, the studio table was filled with prototypes, curled shapes and discarded forms.
The second lamp is made of a leather cover and a paper-based base: toning materials that bring warmth to the same formal logic. The flat sheet becomes a sculptural wedge, a sloping cone emerging from a cylindrical base, catching light in an architectural-like way. A thin brass line of hardware supports the electrical components and marks the seam where the hardware folds.
Despite having the same facilities, the two lamps have a fundamentally different feel. One lamp is sensitive and airy, while the other is more grounded and studied.
Unexpected discoveries
Underlying all this is an argument against digital tools and “over-design” in general. “In an age increasingly shaped by digital tools,” Yokozeki says, “Working directly with your hands continues to spark unexpected discoveries — new ideas, coincidences, subtle intensities, functions and forms.” While parametric tools and advanced software are certainly an addition to the field, they will never be able to replace the freedom and teachings that come from working with your hands.
The exhibition board is full of Yokozeki research prototypes, showing the time and energy spent creating the final shape. What the designer stands for is not a romanticism of art but the simple admission that some knowledge is arrived at only through natural attempts, failures, repetitions and surprises. It all starts with the level.
