The concept of The Well Proven Chair started with a shocking statistic – between 50 and 80 per cent of the raw materials used to create usable wooden furniture ends up as waste in the form of sawdust, shavings and chips.
Are you sitting uncomfortably? Then we’ll continue. James Shaw, a designer studying at the Royal College of Art, has been working with the American Hardwood Export Council and Marjan van Aubel in creating a new chemical process that turns waste wood back into usable material. To boil it down, waste wood + bio resin + water + heat = expanding foamy stuff, both strong and lightweight.
Shaw and van Aubel visited the Benchmark Furniture factory for some ideas and started using a moulding technique – based around an existing ergonomic shell mould – in which the resulting foam was unpredictable in form, but which formed strong joints with the traditionally turned ash legs. The project, launched at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, resulted in some aesthetically enlightening chairs… while the look may need some adjustment for the mass-market, the forward-thinking technique bodes well for the future. Design geekery at is best.
