Sama

Sama began with a formal challenge: a powerful armchair using the circle as its only language. The result is architectural and imposing, and it pulls the eye in like a black hole. The black paint is deliberate: it hides the grain so that only the geometry reads.

Making it was technically demanding. Joining circular volumes creates curves and compound angles that standard joinery is not built for, and it took several rounds of prototypes before the studio found a workable way to make it.

Sama belongs to a wider study of the circle, which Sabanan continues. Its name means “elephant” in Bambara: a nod to the tusk, which curves too.