Production creates waste, and some of this year’s most admirable projects are all about closing the production loop to not just eliminate waste, but upcycle it into items of beauty
Danish textile company Kvadrat showed off 12 benches designed by Max Lamb made of Solid Textile Board, a material developed by Really. This high-quality engineered board utilises end-of-life cotton and wool from fashion and textile industries, and households, in a manufacturing process that does not use water, dyes and toxic chemicals.
Instead of fabric, Spanish designer Jorge Penades upcycled leather scraps for his Structural Skin collection, which first debuted in 2015. This year, the leather leftovers came from French fashion house Hermes, and went into creating a mirror and table lamp.
The leather is cut into strips, bonded and compressed, and then shaved at the edges to show off unique, almost marble-like, textural surfaces.
Ecopixel showed us a new way to recycle plastics and make them into furniture, specifically polyethylene, a “safer” plastic that melts at around 120 deg C with less harm to the environment.
Aluminium is another material that doesn’t degrade when melted and reused, and American company Emeco is known for working almost exclusively with this material.
Its new 1 Inch chair uses the same one-inch square extruded aluminium tube as the iconic Navy chair for its frame designed by British designer Jasper Morrison.
The chair also has a precise strength-to-weight ratio, using the least amount of material to yield the maximum amount of strength.
Emerald green, often paired with many variations of pink, from pretty pastels to almost salmon-like hues, dressed many pieces at the fair.
Patricia Urquiola’s Liquefy tables for Glas Italia mesmerised with their dynamic swirls of colour encased in tempered extralight glass, which resemble either luxurious folds of silk or dramatic marble veining.
The elegant deep-buttoned Chesterfield sofa made an appearance in dark military green, as seen in the Chester Line sofa by Poltrona Frau. The popular Bubble Club outdoor seats by Philippe Starck for Kartell also appeared in new colours of pale pink and forest green.
Prolific designer Jaime Hayon showcased his new Arcolor sofa for Arflex in a rose hue.
