Cat Cellar and other furnya brand products are made through the collaboration of multiple experts. We spoke with Ryosuke Wada, CEO of Kamikagu Co., Ltd., which operates the furnya brand.
-Please tell us about your daily work
Kamikagu is literally "paper furniture." It is a venture company born out of research at the University of Tokyo, with the aim of planning, manufacturing, and selling furniture and interior items made from paper.
Currently, our main business is the Furnya brand, which promotes "interior design for living with cats."
-Why did you originally focus on cardboard and other paper materials?
Kamikagu was born as part of my research activities during my graduate school days. During that time, I had moved seven times, mainly within Tokyo, and each time I wondered if there was a way to create a new furniture option that was easier to transport and dispose of if necessary.
In this context, cardboard attracted attention as a lightweight material with a low environmental impact and a high recyclability rate. At the time, the introduction of cardboard beds in the athletes' village at the Tokyo Olympics made the news, and the possibility of using cardboard for interior design began to be recognized.
With a background in architecture, he wondered if it might be possible to create strong, highly designed interiors that go beyond the "cardboard feel." Using 3D CAD and digital processing, he researched and commercialized cardboard furniture that excels in design.
-Why did you start the furnya brand?
In the course of our activities, we have occasionally heard about the need for scratching posts for pets, especially cats. There are not many products in the world that are made by laminating cardboard, so it is quite unique that scratching posts are so prevalent in this industry.
Furthermore, we found that there are some issues with scratching posts, such as: 1) there are limited processing options, which limits the range of design possibilities; and 2) cleaning up the sharpening dust is a hassle.
Because we have been working with cardboard as a material from the manufacturing stage onwards, we are able to create products with a greater degree of freedom in terms of design. Also, based on our knowledge of the physical properties of cardboard and its distribution, we were confident that we could create something new that would be less likely to produce sharpening shavings and be more durable.
One of the products we created was Cat Cellar. In response to the positive response to Cat Cellar, we decided to focus our business efforts entirely on creating better products and services that are needed in the lives of cats and their owners.
-Why does Furnya have a strong design advantage compared to other companies?
One of our unique features is that we incorporate designs from architects, but more than that, our greatest strength is that we have the manufacturing know-how to implement the shapes and ideas that architects and product designers want to realize.
To give an easy-to-understand example, we mainly use cardboard materials, but we also flexibly incorporate other materials such as wood to ensure the quality of the final interior. I think that our flexibility in incorporating better structural and functional materials into our designs is what sets us apart from other companies.
The cat cellar is also made up of very thin curved boards joined together. At first glance, its thinness may seem structurally unsound, but it has been achieved through careful selection of materials, structural considerations, and load-bearing tests to ensure the quality of the interior. We believe that our greatest strength is our ability to ensure sufficient quality as an interior item while using cardboard, which is highly palatable to cats.
-Would you say that the grinding dust is less likely to come off compared to other companies' products?
Yes. We calculate the required grammage (weight per square meter, which determines the strength of the cardboard) quantitatively based on the paper quality and then order the materials. As a company specializing in cardboard and interior design, we are confident in our ability to select the appropriate materials.
-Please tell us about your future plans.
We would like to create new, high-quality products that have never been seen before, focusing on scratching posts. Just as we have implemented double-sided interchangeable products in our Cat Cellar, we will continue to develop products that incorporate unprecedented functionality and our strength in design.
