Designer Kazuyo Shimada spent three years traveling the world and surfing before eventually settling back in Japan and founding Dessence, an architecture and design firm.

The surfer's love of nature can be seen in his Strata flower pot, which is made from sand and biomass.

The Strata's lifecycle, as conceived by Shimada, is an interesting one: The pot is first used indoors to plant and raise a sapling in, and once it reaches a certain size, the sapling and pot are together taken outside and buried in the ground, where the pot gradually biodegrades, leaving the indoor-born tree now firmly ensconced in the landscape. Pretty brilliant stuff, as well as a metaphor for children growing up at home, then leaving the house and taking their place in the world.