Castor Bar + Counter Stool

The Castor Plus grows up—to bar and counter height—in this taller version of the stool from the signature Castor series by Swiss Studio Big-Game for Japanese maker Karimoku New Standard. Like its shorter counterparts, also made from Japanese Oak, a small diameter of wood is the starting point, a joint detail that is a nod to the traces left by beavers on wood. A reinforced joint between the legs and the cross supporting the seat makes the light and stool a sturdy and durable companion.

Big-Game is only among the latest to join KNS. Some 70 years into producing quality furniture with a Midcentury sensibility, Japanese brand Karimoku decided in 2009 to write a new chapter in design by engaging in collaboration with a young crop of international talent and rechristening itself as Karimoku New Standard. Solid Japanese hardwoods such as maple, chestnut and oak are the basis of a line informed by a cultural understanding of craftsmanship coupled with innovative technologies in terms of manufacturing and sustainability. To preserve and revitalize Japanese forests, the hardwood used is from low-diameter trees, long underused.

Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, Big-Game is a product, furniture and interior design studio helmed by native Grégoire Jeanmonod and French expat Augustin Scott de Martinville and Belgium expat Elric Petit. Besides KNS, they have designed for Praxis, Alessi, Materia and Globe Trotter.