The Baya Lounge Chair

Natsumi Komoto looks to nest-building for a lounge chair made from bent stainless steel and hand-woven leather.

Seen from behind, Natsumi Komoto’s Baya chair reveals a web of brown leather strips suspended inside a slender steel frame. Straps cross at different angles, gathering into a deep pocket beneath the curved backrest. The open weave leaves much of the structure visible, including the slim legs and their small, circular feet. The Japanese designer developed Baya as her 2025 master’s diploma project at ECAL in Lausanne, Switzerland, drawing on her research into the nests animals build by instinct.

Komoto began with a question: “Why do humans need to create?” Her research considered nests as structures shaped directly by their surroundings, with their construction closely tied to the purpose they serve. This became a useful reference for Baya. She imagined the steel frame as supporting branches, with narrow leather strips woven between and around them to create an enclosing seat. The nest provided a way to think through the chair’s construction, its relationship to the body, and the act of making it by hand.

Production brings together two quite different processes. Stainless steel tubing is shaped through CNC bending to establish the chair’s outline. The leather is then woven and wrapped around it by hand, building up the seat and back. Along the perimeter, straps loop over the metal; farther down, overlapping lengths leave gaps of different sizes. Small metal fasteners remain visible at some of the joins. The warm brown surface and exposed silver tubing give each material a clear presence, while the depth of the seat allows room for different sitting positions.

The woven leather is also replaceable, allowing the seat to be renewed while keeping the steel frame in use. This detail gives a practical basis to Komoto’s interest in care and attachment: maintaining the chair becomes part of its continued life, with its construction accessible and its wearing surface replaceable. Baya received a SIT Furniture Design Award in the Lounge Chair category.