OKHA Studio: COSMO

Welcome to COSMO, a seat with singular presence and the latest addition to the armchair collection of OKHA Studio.

Informed by the robust and direct beauty of Tropical Modernism and the raw geometry of constructivist architecture, COSMO is an intriguing interplay of juxtapositions at first and finally, playful harmony.

Featuring a raked, upholstered seat and 3 leg support in lustrous wood, the provocative relationship between these components of mass and scale is the chief character in COSMO’s design narrative. Compositionally and materially in contrast, intentionally a little crude, the seat and base unite in a shared design language of robust proportion and grounded profile to provide a compelling and supportive partnering.

Of note are COSMO’s broad planed legs, two at the side and a single leg in the middle at the back expressed in walnut or ash, which create a trilateral cradle of support for the seat. “The extreme proportions and surface area of the legs are intended to pull the viewers eye to the nature of the wood and give practical presence to the luxury of that material,’ comments Adam Court, OKHA Creative Director.

Highly figured indigenous wood, a reverence for nature as inspiration and an atelier, even artisanal, mentality to production were the cornerstones of Tropical Modernist furniture which came out of the modernist architecture movements between 1940-70 in Brazil, West Africa, India and Sri Lanka. Today, construction techniques are more sophisticated, but the spirit of small batch production and use of wood in profiled planes is still key to the artistic appeal and personality of this enduring style. COSMO is alive with this ethos, yet in OKHA’s interpretation, contains element which have come to be Adam’s individuated design signature or leitmotif. These include a low-slung seat carriage angled to the rear for exemplary seated comfort and a scalloped or scooped profile detail on the legs which both accentuate the wood grain and create a subtle sense of lightness to the structure of COSMO.