A bridge over the backyard pond. That was the first thing Kenneth Cobonpue remembered building as a child. He built it when he was 8 years old using scrap wood he found around his house. “There were plenty of those,” he recalls.
Kenneth’s mother, Betty Chen-Cobonpue, founded Interior Crafts of the Islands, Inc., a furniture design and manufacturing company, in 1972, when he was 4. The factory sat behind the Cobonpue family home in Cebu. “I remember sometimes during dinners, we would smell paint fumes drifting from the factory when craftsmen were working.”
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The bridge broke when he tried to cross it. It became his first lesson in building a structure. Today, Kenneth is now one of the most celebrated and decorated industrial designers from the South-east Asia.
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Though his portfolio is diverse, he is best known for his eponymous furniture label, which champions handcrafted pieces and local materials. He has also designed many iconic pieces for world-renowned people and places.
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Kenneth was always filled with creative energy when he was a child. His creative ambitions shifted frequently during his school days. He once dreamed of becoming a set designer, then a fashion designer.
“I never had the opportunity to pursue either,” he says. “It was already unusual for someone born into a Chinese-Filipino family to pursue art and design.”
Kenneth enrolled in the Industrial Design programme at New York’s Pratt Institute in 1987. He went on to study Furniture Marketing and Production at the Export-Akademie Baden-Wurttemberg in Reutlingen, Germany, under both private and state scholarships.
“It was already unusual for someone born into a Chinese-Filipino family to pursue art and design.”
Kenneth Cobonpue
In 1996, after completing his degrees and gaining work experience in Florence, Italy and Munich, he returned home to Cebu to manage the family’s furniture business.
During that time, South-east Asia’s furniture industry mostly consisted of workshops and factories that churned out designs ordered from elsewhere, with little creative endeavours taken to make original designs. However, Interior Crafts of the Islands, Inc. took risks by crafting original designs.
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Kenneth took it to another level by experimenting with hand craftsmanship and rattan. He began creating pieces with open structures that had gaps in the weaving, making them transparent.
“It’s everywhere today. But when I started experimenting with open structures, nobody else was doing it. Rattan furniture was either upholstered structures made with sticks or densely woven fibre that wasn’t transparent, light or breathable.”
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His Yin & Yang sofa, launched in 1997, has a transparent, cube-shaped woven rattan structure that makes its cushions appear to float. Even though the look was pretty much modernist, it was refreshing because it had a light visual quality. Plus, it was breathable and created an interesting play of shadows when the tropical light hit it from a certain angle.
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Original design became the Kenneth Cobonpue collection’s unique selling point. Kenneth officially rose to international fame nine years later when Time magazine named him “rattan’s first virtuoso”.
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Kenneth’s most notable accolades include Maison & Objet Asia’s 2014 Designer of the Year, the French Coup de Coeur award and five Japan Good Design Awards.
Kenneth’s design appeared in numerous publications, from glossies to hardcover coffee table books.
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His furniture has also been seen in films and TV series, including Keanu Reeves’ John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and K-drama Hyde Jekyll, Me.
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He has also amassed a prestigious list of collaborators, including Disney (for the first-ever adult-size rattan chair collections inspired by Star Wars), Tom Dixon and Moooi.
While rattan, which has undergone a renaissance of late thanks to consumer awareness of sustainable materials, remains Kenneth’s staple material, he has experimented with others.
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“Rattan is at the forefront of the green movement for sure. But as a natural, biodegradable material, it has limited longevity, especially for outdoor use. High-tech materials combined with hand craftsmanship solves that problem,” shares Kenneth.
Most recently, he tinkered with carbon fibre, which resulted in a sinuous chair called Domina. “You might think of cars when you hear the term carbon fibre. However, I’m using it in a very crafty way that requires hands.”
![domina-04](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/domina-04.jpg)
Kenneth strives to preserve the handwoven culture by continuing to explore and help sustain it, and inspire a new generation to take up the profession.
“Hermes bags are worth a fortune because they are handmade. Why can’t we appreciate handmade furniture in the same way? It’s all a matter of perception, and I am trying to take handmade to the next level to inspire this,” he explains.
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“Hermes bags are worth a fortune because they are handmade. Why can’t we appreciate handmade furniture in the same way?
Kenneth Cobopue
Kenneth was one of the six culture makers featured in Shangri-La’s #WithHeart campaign, which celebrates the hotel brand’s 50 years in Asia.
It kick-started with From Asia with Heart, a short film series, in which Kenneth takes us on his creative journey.
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