Image Credit : Pedro Pimentel, Otago, New Zealand
Project Overview
From seed to seat – D2 Design has envisioned the first mass-manufactured recyclable chair. Fashioned from completely new material, a combination of linen and bio-based plastics (our ultimate goal), the chair will be recyclable. Inspired by the classic French bistro chair, it is a beautiful meeting of tradition and technology and represents the core values of D2 Design: innovation and sustainability with function and elegance. Together with the New Zealand-based start-up Revology, D2 presented this concept chair to high acclaim at the JEC trade show in Paris earlier this year.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Philippe Guichard and Alexandre Guichard (note: not related, but what a coincidence!)
Project Brief
Do you believe products should be sustainable? Could you imagine a chair inspired by nature? D2 Design did – and, together with the New Zealand-based start-up Revology, also created it. It will be the world’s first mass-manufactured, recyclable chair.
We will use innovative marketing and sales channels for the chair’s distribution – possibly there will be no show room and retail presence and an online-only model for sales. Revology’s CEO’s plans cannot be fully revealed yet!
The chair is constructed of a new material called “flax”, which is a combination of linen fibres and ultimately a bio-based thermoplastic. This material will be processed in mass manufacturing, thanks to a new induction technology (invented by Roctool), which allows a greater level of control in both the time-cycle of the process and its temperature accuracy. This allows the transformation of the flax into a hard, composite material, without burning the linen fibres.
The iconic Thonet chair – the one you would encounter in a Paris café – inspired the team. Its re-invention created a modern, elegant seat with a unique look, making this chair not just an object to sit on, but also one to admire.
Project Innovation/Need
It is the first recyclable chair, fashioned from new material. We will use the mass-manufacturing Roctool process for the very first time in the furniture industry. The chair is based on our team’s DNA: “an eye on the past, an eye on the planet, an eye on the future”, which translates into revisiting an icon, having sustainability at the core of the product and using high-tech materials and manufacturing techniques.
Design Challenge
We had to overcome several challenges in our design. There were the limitations of the new material we are working with, as well as the limitations of the manufacturing technology, regarding shapes that can be created. However, enhancing and transforming an icon into a more modern design, while respecting the past, was the greatest challenge.
Sustainability
We decided to use new materials, a combination of linen and a bio-based polycarbonate (our ideal goal), which means that our chair will be fully recyclable. Also, linen crops grow twice a year and require little water, compared with, for example, corn.
D2 Design aims to be a B-corp in the near future. Revology is thinking about it too.
Product Design - Concept
This award celebrates creativity and innovation for either a product design at conceptual stage - an early sample or model of a product that has not reached the manufacture stage nor available to the market.
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