For Dubai Design Days 2017, Bee'ah, the Middle East's leading integrated environmental management company based in Sharjah, U.A.E, has commissioned KALO as one of two teams of designers to explore the potential of using its locally recycled rubber crumbs in a furniture collection.

Ammar Kalo's Macaron Seats explore the raw material's softness, compressibility and ability to bond with other recycled materials such as wood chips to redefine the relationship between soft and hard surfaces within a chair.

Design Team

Lead Designer: Ammar Kalo

Designer: Ibrahim Ibrahim

The approach to designing a series of work with recycled crumb rubber was to utilize a similar industrial technique Bee'ah uses to make rubber pavement tiles. Each Macaron seat is made by pressing a two part mold onto a pre-made wood frame. Their main visual characteristics are chamfered smooth surfaces, rounded off edges, and their distinct fuzzy centerline.

The seat's legs jet out of the rubber mass and fold towards the ground, while also leaving an X-shaped silhouette print on the seat's bottom surface, as if the solid rubber stretched to accommodate the wooden legs. The parting line been the molds is exaggerated by allowing some room for overflow rubber, which creates a solid rim around the seat. Once the pieces are de-molded, this rim is ripped off, resulting in a rough edge to the seat, contrasting the smooth seat surfaces. Inlaid within, is a thin brass elements that add to the tension and visual juxtaposition. Also, mixed in with the rubber crumb are wood shavings created from the wooden legs fabrication process, giving the rubber seats a contrasting speckled organic look.

About Bee'ah:

Bee'ah's Tire Recycling Facility, located within the company's Waste Management Center in Sharjah, UAE, currently uses state-of- the-art cryogenic processes to recycle over 9000 used tires into crumb rubber on a daily basis. Bee'ah then produces different size ranges of crumb rubber, which are used for running tracks, playgrounds, landscaping paths, stadium play areas, miniature golf courses, and artificial turf infill. When combined with asphalt, it can also be used for rubberized roads. Bee'ah has continued to explore additional ways to upcycle rubber waste, which aims to improve the value of the resource rather than simply reuse it.

Specs:

Materials: Recycled Crumb Rubber, Solid Hardwood (Maple, White Oak, and Ash), Brass Plated Steel

Finish: Polyurethane Binder, Clear Coat Sealant

Dimensions: 40cm x 40cm x 47cm (Stool) | 42cm x 52cm x 84cm (Chair)

Year: 2017

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