Shiro Kuramata used common industrial materials in his furniture and interior designs, in the process transforming them into rich and noble components. His How High the Moon armchair is made of expanded steel mesh, a structural material that Kuramata plated with nickel as here (or with copper) to make it sparkle and which he joined in welded seams of such precision that the airy mesh is reduced to a series of crossing points, an apparently weightless, boundless volume. Dematerialization and the ironies of function were constant themes for Kuramata, and frequently he used steel mesh to pursue them, both in furniture and in his designs of interiors. Kathyrn B. Hiesinger and Felice Fischer, Japanese Design: A Survey since 1950. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1994, cat. 186, pp. 162-163.