Core77

One Good Chair: fruit trees, not plastic

By Rain Noe - August 6, 2008

in Object Culture

For yet another example of rising oil prices influencing product design, look no further than the recently-announced results of the One Good Chair design competition, put on by the Sustainable Furniture Council:

...as the price of oil has skyrocketed, suddenly what makes a piece of furniture green is changing. Now, designers must consider how much energy it takes to manufacture a piece of furniture, as well as take into account the amount of fuel it will require to ship a piece of furniture.

...[Winner Jessica] Konawicz, a graduate student pursuing her masters degree in industrial design at North Carolina State University, created a fluid, flowing design made with a mold, similar to mass-produced plastic lawn chairs. The only difference: Konawicz's chair is made from a material that comes from the fruit and leaves of the Pandamus tree instead of plastic, which is made from petroleum.

Konawicz said the material is similar to fiberglass, but it's eco-friendly because it's biodegradable. (Konawicz said rainwater will not harm the chair, but prolonged exposure to sunlight will affect the plant-based material.)

"A lot of chairs I've seen have been made out of PVC, and they've said it can be made from recycled PVC itself or it can be recycled, but really recycling is a whole other process that is not earth friendly. You have to go through a lot of energy to get it recycled," Konawicz explained. "With this process... when you're done with the chair, it biodegrates into the earth. So there's no waste and it doesn't harm the earth at all, and I thought that was impressive."

Click here for the full article.

via furniture style

o

Favorite This
Q
6

Comment

Comments

Chalit N.

16 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I love the design. Please advise where I can buy it and how much it cost. Please send the answer to chalit.sahasilp@gmail.com. Thank you.
!Report as spam
Francisco Tablado

16 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I think it is a beautiful design. The material is just a very good plus. Either way, the best use that we can give to oil is turn it into plastic in stead of burning it... so plastic, raw cellulose or recycled diapers, nice chair!! congrats!
!Report as spam
Sacramento Furniture

16 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

These chairs appear to be very interesting. I'm assuming that they're light being that they are made out of an organic like plastic? How long would it take for one of these chairs to bio degrade in the elements?
!Report as spam
Jessica Konawicz

16 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

As the designer of this chair, I just have a few minor corrections. The person who interviewed me misunderstood a few of my comments. The design of the form, not the material choice, came from the pandanus's fruit and leaves. The material is based on cellulose from various sources (ie. hemp, paper pulp, and other cellulose raw materials), not specifically pandanus (for all I know, it doesn't come from pandanus at all). The material is made by mixing fibers with water and other natural additives. The company that manufactures this material is run on green power and recycles 85% of it's water usage. This company not only develops the material, but also does in house product manufacturing.

!Report as spam
Thats a Green Idea

16 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

The success of this chair hinges upon what the designer will make the chair out of? Looks pretty plastic to me. What about form? or the energy to make the mold.

!Report as spam
Paul

16 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

so instead, perfectly edible fruit becomes building material? also, quite a bit of energy goes into the process of producing biodegradable materials, so automatically claiming that it's better than recycling, say, a polymer (which can be 100% recycled indefinitely a la Cradle To Cradle) is quite presumptuous.

As a small scale local solution, maybe this could work... but at the end of the day, that chair still could have been food. i know which i would choose.
!Report as spam