Youbi’s new HQ is made of more than 5,500 solid sugi cedar beams. Its grid structure enables the wide spans needed for the factory area. Photography: Daici Ano

Being woken in the middle of the night by a phone call telling you that the furniture factory of the business you have been developing for the last six years is on fire would probably leave most people in a state of gloom. But not Masayuki Oshima, the charismatic president of Youbi, a small producer of Japanese hinoki cypress furniture in the picturesque village of Nishiawakura in Okayama prefecture.

半夜被一个电话叫醒，告诉你过去六年发展起来的企业的家具厂可能会让大多数人陷入困境。但大岛正之(Masayuki OIsland)却不是这样，他是日本香柏家具的小生产商，名叫优碧(Youbi)，在冈山县风景秀丽的西村(Nishiawura)生产松柏家具。

After the last embers were put out and the charred building was surveyed for anything salvageable (precious little), Oshima decided to turn disaster into opportunity. He told his staff that this was their chance to build a better place for Youbi to explore the use of hinoki in furniture, and to create a fun and open workspace for everyone. This was in January 2016.

在最后的余烬被扑灭，烧焦的建筑被调查后，寻找任何可以挽救的东西(珍贵的小东西)，大岛决定把灾难变成机遇。他告诉他的工作人员，这是他们的机会，为Youbi建立一个更好的地方，探索在家具中使用hinoki，并为每个人创造一个有趣和开放的工作空间。这是在2016年1月。

Fast forward to 2018 and the striking new factory is now a beacon for the whole village. Getting here, though, took some effort. ‘We held an internal workshop in June 2016, where everyone contributed with ideas for our new home,’ Oshima’s wife Naoko explains over lunch in the fully glazed canteen that overlooks the lush green rice paddies surrounding Youbi’s new HQ. Staff take turns preparing meals, and it feels more like having lunch at a friend’s house than eating at a furniture manufacturer.

快到2018年，这座引人注目的新工厂现在成了全村的灯塔。不过，到这里需要付出一些努力。大岛的妻子直子(Naoko)在午餐时解释道：“我们在2016年6月举办了一次内部研讨会，每个人都为我们的新家献计献策。”餐厅里全玻璃化，俯瞰了优碧新总部周围茂密的绿色稻田。工作人员轮流做饭，感觉更像是在朋友家吃午饭，而不是在家具制造商那里吃饭。

The showroom, with a pair of ‘hotaru’ stools and a selection of chairs, all made of hinoki cypress. On the back wall is a series of colourful stool cushions made from traditional Japanese fishing flags. Photography: Daici Ano

陈列室里有一双“小胡桃”凳子和一堆椅子，都是用香柏做的。在后面的墙上是一系列五颜六色的凳子垫子，是由日本传统的捕鱼旗制成的。摄影：Ano Daici Ano

‘One of the staff came up with the idea of having a dining room at the centre of our new factory,’ Naoko continues, ‘and this room is, in fact, almost completely in the centre of our plot of land.’ Her husband later tells me that since they started preparing and eating their daily lunch together, communication and quality at the factory has gone up considerably.

直子接着说：“其中一名员工想出了在我们新工厂的中心建一间餐厅的想法，实际上，这个房间几乎完全位于我们土地的中心地带。”她的丈夫后来告诉我，自从他们开始一起准备和吃他们的日常午餐以来，工厂的沟通和质量都有了很大的提高。

Before founding Youbi, Masayuki Oshima was learning how to build furniture in Gifu, one of Japan’s more active furniture-producing regions. He heard about the village of Nishiawakura’s ambitious Hundred Year Forest Plan to both rejuvenate the local lumber industry and secure a sustainable tree-filled environment.

在创建Youbi之前，大岛正行(Masayuki)在日本较为活跃的家具产区之一基富学习如何建造家具。他听说了西村雄心勃勃的百年森林计划，既振兴了当地的木材工业，又确保了一个可持续的树木填充环境。

‘I came on a brief visit and immediately fell in love with the place and the project,’ he explains. The next day, he handed in his resignation and decided to move roughly 300km west to Nishiawakura.

“我来了一次短暂的访问，立刻爱上了这个地方和这个项目。”他解释道。第二天，他把他的辞呈递给他，决定把大约300公里的西移到Nishiwasura。

The village has attracted a number of businesses over the last ten years or so. Besides Youbi, there are a couple of other small wood producers, such as Morinogakko, which makes hinoki flooring and other products for domestic interiors and the building trade. A former school building nearby has been turned into a café, bakery and brewery, and is becoming a local hub.

在过去的十多年里，这个村庄吸引了许多企业。除了Youbi之外，还有其他几家小型木材生产商，如Morinogakko，该公司为国内内饰和建筑行业生产雪野木地板和其他产品。附近的一座旧校舍已变成一家咖啡馆、面包店和酿酒厂，并正在成为当地的中心。

Some 95 per cent of the municipality is covered by forest. Of that, more than 80 per cent is Japanese hinoki cypress or sugi cedar. Hinoki has been traditionally used for the construction of homes and temples, as well as Japanese bathtubs. Not many people have experimented with using hinoki for furniture as it is believed to be too light and too soft. Oshima, however, quickly decided to make furniture using only hinoki precisely for those reasons.

大约95%的城市被森林覆盖。其中80%以上是日本的柏树或杉树。Hinoki传统上被用于建造房屋和寺庙，以及日本的浴缸。并不是很多人使用Hinoki来做家具，因为它被认为太轻而且太软了。然而，大岛很快就决定只使用Hinoki来制造家具，因为这些原因。

Youbi’s Windsor chair, for example, can be easily lifted with one hand despite its sturdy construction. Because of the flexibility of the material, Youbi is able to bend the wood into shapes that would be more difficult with harder species. ‘It’s also important for us that we support the local lumber industry,’ says Oshima.

例如，Youbi的温莎椅，尽管结构坚固，但单手就能轻松地举起。由于材料的柔韧性，Youbi能够将木材弯曲成形状，更难用更硬的物种。大岛说，支持当地木材工业对我们也很重要。

When forced to rebuild the factory after the fire, it was only natural to look at using local lumber for the bulk of the construction, too. A friend showed Oshima a way of using plain sugi cedar beams in a grid structure that would allow for the wide spans needed for the large factory area. Oshima was quickly convinced this method would make a striking statement for the company.

火灾发生后，当被迫重建工厂时，自然也会考虑使用当地木材作为建筑的大部分。一位朋友向大岛展示了一种在网格结构中使用普通杉木梁的方法，这将允许大工厂面积所需的大跨度。大岛很快就相信，这一方法将为该公司做出引人注目的声明。

Work started in June 2017 and because funds were tight, Oshima invited friends to come and help with the construction. ‘Word quickly spread, and we even had people showing up that had heard about a fun project here in Nishiawakura, but otherwise had no idea of what the project was or who we were,’ Oshima laughs.

2017年6月开始工作，因为资金非常紧，大岛邀请朋友来帮助他们的建设。”字很快就扩散了，我们甚至让人们展示了在Nishiwasura的一个有趣的项目，但除此之外，我们也不知道该项目是什么，或者我们是谁，”大岛笑。

In total, more than 400 volunteers helped out, before the factory reopened earlier this year. Visitors are welcome, and if you arrive around noon you might be lucky enough to get invited to the staff lunch. §

今年早些时候，在工厂重新开放之前，共有400多名志愿者帮助了他们。欢迎来客，如果你中午到达，你可能很幸运能被邀请参加员工午餐。?

这座建筑位于日本本州岛冈山附近的西村。这座建筑位于日本本州岛冈山附近的西村市，森林约占该市的95%。森林约占该市的95%

员工餐厅俯瞰茂盛的稻田，员工餐厅俯瞰茂盛的稻田。