Sustainable furniture and designs are thankfully becoming more common, but the “sustainable” label can actually be applied to different things. They can be made from recycled materials like metal or PCR plastics, or they can be made from new but biodegradable materials like wood, cork, and paper. While both kinds are good, they don’t always address the accumulating material waste that comes from the production of these objects, even the bits and pieces of wood that get left on the cutting room floor and then thrown out. Giving a new purpose to these by-products is another sustainable practice, one that is being applied to a beautifully minimalist office chair that’s made from dozens of sheets of paper.
Of course, it’s not literally made from paper, which would be too soft for a chair no matter how many sheets you stack, especially for a sleek and slender seat based on Arper’s iconic Catifa 53. Instead, it uses PaperShell from a Swedish startup of the same name, a material that almost poetically transforms paper, which comes from wood, back to a wood-like material that offers rigidity, stability, and, more importantly, beauty. In a nutshell, it uses both wood by-products like sawdust and chips as well as waste wood like fallen branches in forests to create a new paper-like material that can be used in place of wood, plastic, or fiber composites.
That’s the case with the Catifa Carta, which compresses dozens of these sheets into a composite that’s then bent and formed into an elegant chair with a gentle slope sitting on top of thin yet sturdy metal legs. Unlike its older sibling, this more sustainable version of the chair leaves the seat in its original, unpainted glory. That means you can see the natural imperfections of the PaperShell material, giving each chair a unique character. It’s pretty much the same as the highly prized grains in wood that give designs their natural charm.
What’s even more special about the chair is that even the end of its life has a story to tell. PaperShell can be recycled to produce new and different products, but it can also be turned into biochar to nourish the Earth. The material itself sequesters carbon dioxide which can be used to enrich soil. It’s a truly circular life cycle that starts and ends with the Earth. Appropriately, Arper has made the Catifa Carta easy to disassemble to make this process even easier.
Of course, the chair isn’t just a thing of beauty inside and out, it’s also a functional piece of furniture. Though some might have concerns about the ergonomics of using such a chair for long periods at work, it’s still a well-designed seat that makes you feel good not only about sitting on it but also about the exciting journey that this wood-like material has made since its birth from a seed.
We’re in a time and age where people have started living more sustainably and consciously, and this is reflected in their everyday decisions. They’re making changes in their daily lives, consumption, and even means of transportation! People are slowly but surely adopting bicycles as they are eco-friendly alternatives to the pollution-causing automotive, but also they’re an excellent source of exercise. I mean, not only do we get to save the Earth from air pollution, but we can also get some intense cardio done. And, we’ve curated a whole range of innovative designs for you that caught our attention. From a “wheel-less” bicycle to a bicycle with triangle wheels – these impressive bicycles will surely convert you to Team Cycles!
1. The Wheelless Bike
Meet the Wheelless Bike – an innovative and extraordinary innovative by the US-based YouTuber The Q! This mindboggling bicycle literally has NO wheels. Since the bicycle lacks wheels, it has been integrated with rotating elements that help it move forward. It is equipped with two sets of wheel belts that have been mounted at unusual angles, to form fascinating silhouettes. The unique Wheelless Bike is designed to function like a tank, allowing the bike and you to be moved forward by the rotating wheel belts.
2. Firefly MiniVelo Travel Bike
This customized bike is the Firefly MiniVelo travel bike for Ming Thein! It is a titanium bicycle specially tailored for Ming Thein, and designed to fit perfectly into a Rimowa travel case. The bike is custom-made, and it can be easily assembled and disassembled like a puzzle, to fit snugly into a briefcase, and back to ride without a single flinch or issue. It features a lightweight and durable chassis that can be efficiently unfastened into two halves, with the other parts also following suit.
3. The J.Laverick Aston Martin .1R
Meet the J.Laverick Aston Martin .1R – an alluring advanced titanium road bike that is created using a mix of 3D-printed titanium lugs, and sculpted carbon fiber tubes which builds a lightweight yet sturdy bicycle without any kind of exposed bolts on the outer body. According to Aston Martin’s designers, this is the world’s first and is also described as a “titanium hypercar on two wheels”. You can also choose between a saddle or a handlebar type, and currently, the exact pricing of the bicycle isn’t known.
4. Bike With Treads
Sergii Gordieiev aka The Q on YouTube is known for his ingenious and out-of-the-box bicycle designs, and this time he is back with a bicycle with treads instead of wheels! The handlebars, frame, and seat have all been assembled from scratch to accommodate the other not-so-ordinary elements of the custom bike. The body features a lower profile at the rear than the front fork. The handlebar and the cushioned seating are aligned, making the bike comfy to fit on, however, with those treads constantly moving, I wonder how comfy this bike might be.
5. Moccle
Dubbed the Moccle, this rather adorable-looking bicycle with a fun and unique aesthetic, is designed to help you truly enjoy riding. The simple bike isn’t equipped with gears, a dashboard, or even shock absorbers, but it does have a bent-wood frame to absorb shock. The bent plywood frame is fixed in place with the help of a metal fixture, and this frame flexes when pressurized, absorbing any stress from bad rocky terrains or undulating surfaces. The Moccle truly brings back the joy of old-school peddling!
6. Gordieiev’s Bicycle with Square Wheels
Meet another spectacular creation by Sergii Gordieiev – a bicycle with square wheels! This innovative bicycle features wheels that don’t roll, but instead, they move on a conveyor belt-like platform that rotates as you hit your foot on the pedal. The best imagery to understand how it works would be to imagine war tanks moving on their metal tracks without any wheels, except in this case it is a cycle and the wheels are square-shaped!
7. RE:CYCLE
Named RE:CYCLE, this innovative bicycle design is made from recycled aluminum coffee capsules. The aluminum in the coffee capsules has been melted down and then utilized to build this durable, sturdy, and powerful bike. It perfectly merges sustainability and clever design, while maintaining Vélosophy’s iconic and subtle design philosophy and language. It features a lovely purple frame that draws inspiration from Arpeggio – the famous Nespresso coffee, while the bell looks like a coffee capsule!
8. Wing Cycle
Named the Wing Cycle, this beautiful roadster bike is inspired by avians! It doesn’t go for the traditional diamond shape and instead adopts a form inspired by a bird wing. The bike includes a cable wire design that supports the seat, and the cable rope system can be easily adjusted to change the positioning of the seat for diverse riding moods. It features a material palette of chrome, leather, and wood, creating a sleek and skeletal bicycle that grabs attention.
9. Infinity All-Wheel Drive Bicycle
Stephan Henrich designed an innovative and uniquely shaped bicycle called the Infinity All-Wheel Drive Bicycle. It is one of the most out-of-the-box automotive designs I’ve seen in a while, and it moves forward with the help of a monotyre-clip chain system that creates a temporary rim in the wheel sections as well as a dental belt drive in the interior groove. The unique bicycle sets into motion using a short chain, and an 8-speed gearbox which is unlike anything we’ve seen before.
10. Bicycle With Triangle Wheels
Designed by the Q, this mind-boggling bicycle is equipped with triangle-shaped wheels. It is a cleverly designed bicycle that moves in a linear form, creating adjacent lines between each of the rollers, and the flat surface it is riding on. This allows the triangular wheels to overcome their limitations, and roll quite comfortably without any hurdles. The triangle-shaped wheels are truly far more comfortable than you can imagine, and also so fun to ride!
Flat-packed products like tables and chairs have definitely changed the furniture design landscape and altered consumers’ tastes. But while these designs do make it easy to store, transport, and sometimes assemble pieces of furniture, they often also end up being bland in the name of minimalism, not to mention tedious and cumbersome to repair or dispose of, despite the supposed ease of assembly. Thanks to new manufacturing techniques and technologies, especially 3D printing, there are now alternative methods and designs possible, including a beautiful chair that’s not only made from sustainable materials but is trivial to assemble and disassemble because it doesn’t even use screws or adhesives.
Designer: Eva Dugintseva
3D printing has definitely come a long way from the flimsy plastic materials that they started out with. We can now print objects using a variety of materials, including metal, chocolate, and soon, even wood. It’s even possible to use recycled PS (polystyrene) plastic, which helps reduce the negative impact of mass-produced plastic chairs. That alone already makes the Som Chair concept notable, but that isn’t the only trick it knows, not by a long shot.
Thanks to 3D printing, it was possible to experiment with and use shapes that would normally be costly to pull off on a mass production line. In this case, the chair is made from two separate bent shapes with ridged surfaces that make them look like dozens of plastic tubes stuck to one another. The main structure of the chair has a small gap for the smaller piece to slide into, forming the three legs of the chair. Instead of using glue or screws, this simple mechanism, along with physics, give the chair its stability.
This means that the Som Chair isn’t just easy to assemble, it’s also easy to take apart if you need to move it or even dispose of it. It might be possible to break down and recycle the plastic to make other objects, making it a little bit more sustainable, despite being made of plastic. You can also mix and match designs or replace only parts that are broken, giving the design more longevity as well.
Granted, this design won’t be as flat as a flat-packed chair, but you can package two of these together in a single box. Being 3D printed, there’s also more leeway in possible designs, giving this asymmetrical Memphis Milano chair more personality than your common minimalist yet plain flat-packed variety.
We’re seeing a lot of recreational places like amusement parks, public spaces, museums, etc that are looking for ways to use renewable sources of energy and to be more eco-friendly. There is also a slowly growing call to turn places that used to be major pollutants into something that can benefit mother nature as well as become places that are useful for the general public. One such place in Italy may soon be turned into a clean energy park in order to reconnect this area with the city and its neighbouring areas.
What used to be an oil refinery in Trieste, Italy may soon become a renewal energy park and become part of a 365,000 square meter reclaimed seafront park that will be open to the public. The six former oil reservoirs in the area will be converted into tanks with water batteries and will be used to power the needs of the park. The tanks are 15 meters tall and have a capacity of 110,000 cubic meters and can turn what was once an inaccessible area into a useful public space.
The tanks will be used to store power by having seawater pumped into them and turning them into potential energy. When the power is actually needed, the stored seawater will then be turned into hydroelectric energy and consequently, they will be pumping water back into the sea. The energy needed for this whole “pumped hydroelectric” plant process uses agrivoltaics or dual-use solar panels. The elevated photovoltaic panels will be located around the urban park.
Aside from the fact that it will turn a former pollutant into an environmentally-friendly place, it will also bring Trieste into a closer relationship with the neighboring municipality of Muggia. There are other spaces like green areas, urban farms, and even an Innovation Park with a biotech research facility included inside. Hopefully we’ll see more projects like this in various cities so they can become more sustainable in the future.
3D printing blasted the doors of creativity wide open by allowing almost anyone and everyone to create complex designs on demand. That market started with different kinds of plastic but soon supported other materials as well, including metal and even chocolate. The popularity of this style of design and production, however, also meant a surge in material waste, especially different kinds of non-recyclable plastics. There is a greater need for more sustainable alternatives, one that can perhaps even support a fully circular lifecycle. There is perhaps no better material that meets those requirements than wood, which is why this new 3D printed wooden partition screens and window coverings could very well represent the breakthrough that the design industry needs.
Designers have a soft spot for natural, sustainable materials and wood is perhaps one of if not the most favored one. It is easily sourced, though not quickly replenished, has unique aesthetics and textures, and can decompose safely. That said, it’s not easy to form wood into complex shapes and structures, even if you carve out the design, and the material isn’t exactly easily reusable even after being recycled. This new 3D printed wood addresses all those shortcomings, offering an almost perfect material for bringing intricate, sustainable designs to life.
This sustainable new material is itself made from wood waste blended with some natural ingredients such as lignin and cellulose. It is then reinforced using vegetable fibers like flax or hemp to give it the same durability you’d expect from wood. The result is a composition that doesn’t just look like wood but also feels like the real thing. In fact, it even smells like real wood, a trait that’s hard to reproduce on other synthetic wood alternatives.
Aectual’s material, however, does something even better than wood. After a 3D printed wooden product reaches the end of its life, it can be shredded and then reprinted into some other or the same form. This creates a truly circular lifecycle where the material is reborn again and again as long as it retains its integrity and stability. And when it can no longer be reused, it still degrades and decomposes safely just like ordinary wood.
Of course, it’s a 3D printed material, so it’s almost trivial to create structures and shapes that would be extremely difficult if not impossible with regular wood. You can have intricate repeating patterns that join together with no visible seams, or alternating shapes that are made as a whole rather than composed piece by piece. It might be too early to claim a complete victory, as the process of creating this 3D printed wooden material might still be too involved and too costly, but it’s definitely a great start in producing a viable alternative to designers’ most-loved material.
Sitting is an important part of our daily lives, so it’s not unusual to see different kinds of seating furniture around places where people stay or pass through. Unfortunately, it’s hard to predict when you’d need a single chair or a multi-person bench, so spaces tend to either put multiple chairs together or have a few benches and force people to sit together. That strategy does work, at least until the situation changes and you need to change seats, which often means buying new seats and discarding the old ones. This minimalist stool concept tries to offer a more sustainable solution that helps reduce waste by turning two stools into a single bench and back again, depending on the need.
Designers: Erika Avery, Stu Cole
The requirements for a stool, chair, or bench are pretty simple. At the very least, it needs to be stable enough to support the weight of a human person sitting on it without toppling over or collapsing. Comfort is, of course, ideal, but some designs seem to forego that in exchange for other capabilities. It’s arguable that the “unknown” stool concept is one of these designs, though its modular nature leaves that open to interpretation and implementation.
The core element of this concept is the sturdy column made of cork, a sustainable and easily acquired material. It’s a single cylinder that makes up the center of the stool, but its secret lies in a smaller circle that connects to a removable seat with a hole in its center. It’s a simple system that requires no screws, extra parts, or complex mechanisms, which means maintenance, repair, and replacement will be just as simple as well.
That seat can, in theory, be anything, though the simple shapes of a square and a circle immediately come to mind. However, that doesn’t limit it to a single symmetrical shape either, since you can have a long rectangular seat with holes on each end, forming a bench when set on top of two cork columns. In fact, the design of the actual furniture is determined by the shape of that removable seat, and it can be as simple or as complex as needed.
The concept doesn’t exactly define what the seat has to be made of, so it can use wood, metal, plastic, or any other material. It can be bare or it can have some cushioning or upholstery to add a bit of comfort. More importantly, the seats can be changed, repaired, or replaced without throwing away the cork core, or vice versa. It’s a simple yet effective design that limits the waste of fixed chairs and stools while leaving the door open for combinations that deliver what’s needed at any given time.
They say that algae, not trees, help produce a majority of the breathable air around us. Covering large parts of land and sea, this wonder-organism does a remarkable job of purifying the air and enriching it with oxygen… so imagine being able to harness nature’s purifier and have it in your home. Unveiled at Milan Design Week, the AIReactor by EcoLogicStudio is a sleek, three-foot-tall structure with a recycled birch plywood frame. At its heart lies a glass photobioreactor containing a vibrant green liquid teeming with microalgae cultures.
Designer: EcoLogicStudio
Through photosynthesis, algae naturally convert carbon dioxide and pollutants into clean oxygen. The AIReactor continuously pumps air into the bioreactor, mimicking natural water currents for optimal algae growth. As the algae perform their photosynthetic magic, they filter out harmful pollutants, leaving behind cleaner air.
“In addition to capturing pollutants, the microalgae cultivated in AIReactor can be harvested and utilized to produce biopolymers for 3D printing products,” said the studio. “After harvesting, the algae biomass can be dried and then undergo further processing to produce biopolymers, which are natural polymers derived from renewable plant-based sources.”
The biomass generated by the algae after it has filtered the air becomes a valuable resource. EcoLogicStudio harvests this biomass and uses it to create biopolymers, natural polymers derived from renewable sources. The studio recently unveiled the PhotoSynthetica collection, comprising the AIReactor, along with a stool and a ring made from the biopolymers generated during the air filtration process. Building on their 2018 research project, the PhotoSynthetica collection incorporates biomass, a waste material harvested from microalgae, into a series of everyday objects. This innovative approach expands upon the project’s initial exploration, which saw the creation of a large-scale tree sculpture.
The PhotoSynthetica collection is on display from 15 to 21 April as part of Isola Design Festival 2024 during Milan Design Week.
I personally know some people who go through sneakers and trainers like they go through toilet paper. Okay that maybe an exaggeration but there are a lot of collectors and wearers out there who do spend a lot on this kind of footwear and dispose of their old ones in a not so sustainable manner. So when we see designers and brands that recycle or upcycle these things as part of sustainable fashion, we pay attention and if we can afford it, we support them. If you also like owning limited edition pieces, then this new collection may be something you’d like to add to your closet.
Bibi Bazz is a brand that focuses on upcycling and their Genesis Collection brings handcrafted bags made from damaged or deadstock trainers. This is just the first drop in their collection and is made up of limited edition shoulder bags and crossbody styles that can make you look like an eco-friendly rockstar. Aside from the different colors and textures, these bags also come with denim shoulder straps for a chic look. They also have interior pouches if you need to secure some small items.
The Fresh Start Trainer cross body bag uses deadstock Puma trainers in white and black colors. The Emerge Trainer Bag is a shoulder bag using a blue base with pink details and a denim strap as well. If you want something with bolder colors, the Rebirth Trainer is a crossbody bag with blue and neon orange hues with white accents. Meanwhile, the Revive Trainer is a crossbody bag with a red base and black patterns. If you’re more adventurous in your color palette, you can get the Renewal Trainer bag with its mix of neon lime, black, and green colors or the Pioneer Trainer Bag with its neon orange, pink, and yellow hues.
The bags from the Genesis Collection has a price range of £70-100. They’re in fact the first items available for the launch of Bibi Bazz’ online store. Even though the model on their website is a woman, the bags “transcend gender” and are meant to not only be eco-friendly but also inclusive. Since there are only limited items available, you might want to buy your upcycled trainer bags now.
Something that designers have been focusing on when it comes to the arena of lighting is sustainability in their use of materials and different techniques. Pretty lighting designs that illuminate well can be found generously, but ones with a splash of sustainability aren’t always easy to come by. And even if you do find an eco-friendly one, they aren’t always the most visually pleasing ones on the market and can mess up your interior decor style. But this is where Spanish designer Ceci Ferrero has come to the rescue with his Couro collection, created for the handmade decor brand Let’s Pause.
Now what makes Ferroro’s Couro collection special? Well, these distinctive pendant lamps are made using a leather alternative derived from plants! The lighting range for Let’s Pause is crafted from couro – a leather-like material made from the dry waste leaves of American palm trees. The material has a unique translucent appearance which softly diffuses light, creating a wonderful and ethereal-looking effect.
The collection includes the Couro 8 Leafs lamp shade, where the leaves’ shapes are preserved, and artfully draped into a mesmerizing artichoke-esque arrangement, or in the words of Let’s Pause in an “elegant skirt of spikes”. According to the decor brand, the pendants will look stunning over a dining table or even at the entrance to a hotel, making it a perfect fit for personal and commercial spaces. The lighting designs can be hung in groups of varying heights or individually.
“The texture of the leaves, with their compact fibers, evokes aged leather and provides a unique tactile element,” said Let’s Pause. The shades are offered supported by a brown frame crafted from aluminum and paired with a black plug, and a 2.5 meter-long matte black cotton electric cord. The Couro collection has a natural look to it with a touch of wilderness that adds some personality to the pieces. They perfectly complement various interior decor styles, adding a spark of style and whimsical elegance to different spaces, whether it is your own living room or the reception area of your office.
Today’s clocks and watches seem to be split between mechanical analog and electronic digital designs, but there are more than two ways to tell the time. Of course, some of these methods are regarded to be inaccurate, error-prone, and at the mercy of the elements, but there’s a certain charm and magical feeling to the way our ancient ancestors tried to discern the time of day. The sundial is one of the oldest time-keeping tools, one that works on the presumption that the sun travels the same path every day of the year, which isn’t exactly the case. Still, it’s not an entirely incorrect method and it can easily be fixed with modern technology, like this sustainable wall clock concept that is powered by the sun in more ways than one.
A sundial works by simply observing the shadow that a stick or a tall thin object casts on a flat surface, a shadow that moves around and grows or shrinks as the sun makes its way through the sky. The sun doesn’t travel the exact same path all year round, however, and this method definitely doesn’t work at night. Modern technology, however, has a way to shine a light 24/7, and this wall clock uses that to recreate the almost mystical appearance of a sundial while utilizing energy from the very sun that inspired it.
Name after the Egyptian god of the sun, the Ra wall clock utilizes an LED ring light to simulate the sun. But rather than shining from all directions, the light is focused on a single point to recreate the effect of a short stick casting a very long shadow. As time moves, so does the light move around the periphery of the circle, thus mimicking a sundial but with more consistency and accuracy. Plus, it works at night as it does during the day.
While this would have been enough to create a modern sundial clock, the concept takes the association even further by also following how the sundial of old needed only the sun to function. Rather than relying on batteries, Ra uses solar power to make sure the clock is running 24/7 without the need to charge it or change batteries. The transparent solar panel that makes up the wall clock’s front cover actually harnesses any light around it, so the clock doesn’t need to actually be exposed to the sun and can be used indoors or under low-light environments.
This design helps give the sundial wall clock a sustainable potential, even if it does minimally use some electronics as well as LED lighting. Unlike analog clocks, there are now complex mechanisms that are difficult to repair, and unlike digital clocks, there are no screens or displays to show the time. It uses a very simple method that traces its roots back to ancient times, but one that still has benefits to the people of today.
