At Milan Design Week, PROWL Studio and M4 Factory will debut the PEEL Chair at the "Expect Death" exhibition, a sustainable alternative to plastic stacking chairs made from biodegradable hemp, aiming to challenge the fast furniture industry's waste. This initiative highlights the chair's compostable design and lifecycle awareness, utilizing innovative materials such as hemp-based bioplastic and a compostable hemp foam cushion, developed to decompose as quickly as an orange peel. Held in the former Porta Vittoria abattoir, the exhibition explores the environmental impact of furniture waste and showcases the chair's journey from production to disposal. The collaboration between the women-owned PROWL Studio and M4 Factory underscores a commitment to sustainability, utilizing the Milan Design Week as a platform to transform sustainable design from concept to scalable reality, promoting a future of responsible, mass-produced furniture.

https://designwanted.com/peel-chair-hemp-based-biodegradable-compostable/

At Milan 2016, Swiss studio Big-Game unveiled the Little Big Chair, a children's chair that is part of Italian brand Magis' Me Too collection, which caters specifically to young users. The chair, designed for children aged two to six, features an adjustable plastic seat that fits over a wooden frame and can be set to three different heights to accommodate a child's growth. Available in three colors, its design includes sliding plastic elements that can be adjusted and secured with simple white pegs, allowing the chair to adapt as the child grows. Highlighting the durability and emotional significance of the chair, it is constructed to support even an adult's weight. Big-Game co-founder Augustin Scott de Martinville emphasizes that designing for children requires as much rigor as designing for adults, despite the challenges in obtaining direct feedback on comfort. The Little Big Chair was introduced among a wave of child-focused designs at the year's Milan design week, reflecting a broader trend in children's product launches.

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/04/08/little-big-chair-childrens-furniture-big-game-milan-design-week-2016/

Tamás Máté Nagy, an industrial design student at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, developed the Heir chair for his senior thesis, which ingeniously adjusts from adult-sized to highchair-height to accommodate the changing needs of growing children. Targeting young families, this chair addresses the transitional period when children outgrow traditional highchairs but are still too short for regular chairs, typically from ages 3 to 12. The Heir chair’s design allows it to remain useful beyond these years, essentially growing with the child and providing long-term functionality. Nagy collaborated with a skilled carpenter to enhance the quality of the prototype, gaining valuable insights into craftsmanship. Additionally, he innovated the assembly process by designing custom 3D-printed bolt heads that can be fastened using just a coin and manual force, eliminating the need for special tools. This feature not only simplifies the construction but also reflects a commitment to accessible and adaptable furniture design.

https://www.core77.com/posts/117784/Great-Post-Industrial-Design-Student-Work-A-Chair-That-Transforms-Into-a-High-Chair?utm_source=core77&utm_medium=from_title

At an exhibition in Wales focused on design and waste reduction, UK consultancy PriestmanGoode unveiled their Knot Waste Furniture system, a sustainable furniture solution that cleverly utilizes a single sheet of material to produce minimal waste. This system is designed to create various types of furniture, such as tables, benches, stools, and side tables, using a single flexible template that can be scaled to suit different needs. The key to this system lies in its simplicity and the use of rope to assemble the pieces, ensuring that no advanced woodworking or joinery skills are necessary. This makes it accessible even to those with minimal experience in handling tools, with the most challenging equipment being a jigsaw. The design maximizes the use of materials while minimizing waste, aligning with sustainability goals. PriestmanGoode has made the design templates and a knot-tying guide freely available, providing comprehensive instructions that guide users through the entire assembly process. This approach not only promotes environmental sustainability but also democratizes design by enabling more people to create their own furniture.

https://www.core77.com/posts/118953/Waste-Reducing-Design-A-Single-Sheet-of-Material-and-Rope-Forms-Furniture?utm_source=core77&utm_medium=from_title

https://www.priestmangoode.com/knot-waste/

Jacob Cuesta Wolf, an Industrial Design student at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art & Design Halle in Germany, has developed the Hulot system, a modular furniture concept designed to address the sustainability challenges in furniture production and waste. Highlighting the alarming statistic that half of all bulky waste in Germany consists of still-usable furniture, amounting to nearly 1.7 million tons—a figure that has increased during the COVID pandemic—Wolf's design introduces a new model for circular use of furniture. This system assigns long-term responsibility to producers for the maintenance, repair, and refurbishment of products, fundamentally altering the relationship between users, producers, and the objects themselves. The Hulot system is based on a circular design that allows furniture pieces, such as chairs and tables, to be easily transformed and repurposed—like converting a chair into a table, then into a children’s high chair, and back into a chair. This adaptability ensures that the furniture can meet changing needs without becoming waste. Utilizing materials that store CO2, are recyclable, or are already made from recycled materials, the design not only emphasizes sustainability but also fosters a new attitude towards product development, promoting a lifecycle where products are continuously reused rather than discarded.

https://www.core77.com/posts/125064/Industrial-Design-Student-Work-Modular-Repurposeable-Furniture?utm_source=core77&utm_medium=from_title

https://design.jcwolf.de/HULOT

MLT is the fruit of a collaboration with a recycling plant based in Bromont, Quebec. I wanted to engage within the rigid and energy consuming industrial process that is recycling. After being melted, plastics are passed through and industrial extruder. Inorder to prevent the contamination or blockages, machines need to be purged regularly. Consequently, uncontrolled and un-recyclable plastic is discharged on the floors daily. These pools of wasted material instigated my research and inspired me to create this project.

MLT is a collection of four prototypes made out of purged HDPE. I designed a simple aluminum frame-work which is placed under the extruder that needs to be purged. The vessel, acting as a collector, guides and holds the liquid matter without restricting it to a predetermined shape. The outcome is a materialization of the symbiotic relationship between the imposed and organic form. 

https://www.emilemeunierdesign.com/mlt
https://www.core77.com/posts/126169/Furniture-Made-from-Excess-HDPE-Purged-from-a-Recycling-Machine?utm_source=core77&utm_medium=from_title

Lifecare Furniture has developed the SYSTM line, specifically designed to meet the stringent cleanliness requirements of healthcare facilities. This innovative furniture collection is engineered for quick disassembly using a red-handled Allen key, conveniently stored beneath the seat, allowing for efficient, thorough cleaning and easy re-upholstering. The design not only simplifies the maintenance and longevity of furniture in healthcare settings but is also suitable for high-traffic commercial environments. The collection includes various designs for both chairs and sofas, embodying a practical solution that could also benefit residential spaces by making furniture upkeep and updating simpler and more sustainable.

https://www.core77.com/posts/126411/Smart-Furniture-Designed-to-be-Quickly-Disassembled-for-Cleaning-or-Re-Upholstering?utm_source=core77&utm_medium=from_title

The design duo Eneris Collective, in collaboration with NaifactoryLAB in Barcelona, has created the Nontalo stool for children, innovatively crafted from waste olive pits. This eco-friendly stool consists of six modules that include three P-shaped pieces and three straight rods, allowing for various configurations from a three-legged stool to a bench. The modules are made from Reolivar, a biomaterial developed by NaifactoryLAB that combines olive pits with bio-based binders to create a cork-like substance. Designers Irene Segarra and Irene Martínez of Eneris Collective aimed to merge play, spontaneity, and sustainability in this design, drawing inspiration from children’s construction sets. The material, Reolivar, is not only compostable at the end of its lifecycle but can also be returned for recycling, supporting a sustainable life cycle and usage in drier indoor environments to enhance longevity. Eneris Collective is also expanding this concept into a broader Nontalo Kids seating collection, reflecting a growing trend in using biomaterials for sustainable furniture design.

https://www.dezeen.com/2022/11/28/eneris-collective-naifactorylab-design-olive-pits-nontalo/

The TERRA! Grass Armchair Revival project breathes new life into the innovative concept of living, eco-friendly furniture, first introduced in 2000 by Studio Nucleo. This hands-on initiative invites enthusiasts to blend design with nature by assembling a unique flatpack kit into an armchair frame, which is then nurtured into a lush, green piece of garden furniture through the addition of soil, seeds, and regular watering. Aimed at fostering a deeper connection between individuals and their environments, the project not only offers a distinctive, sustainable piece of outdoor decor but also serves as a testament to the harmony achievable between human creativity and the natural world. Participants eager to cultivate their own grass armchair and contribute to this green initiative are encouraged to join the supporting Kickstarter campaign, embodying the fusion of art, design, and environmental stewardship.

https://design-milk.com/terra-armchair-made-grass/

The New York-based Nikolas Gregory Studio introduces the 'Scrap Stool', an innovative approach towards sustainable design by repurposing industrial waste, specifically paper from local businesses, into functional furniture. By asking businesses to dispose of their paper waste in bins lined with a slow-drying glue, the studio efficiently creates stools with minimal production costs, utilizing waste and existing labor. This inventive method not only highlights the potential of sustainable design in reducing industrial waste but also signals a shift towards more environmentally conscious manufacturing practices, with plans to expand this approach to other furniture items, embodying the principle of re-contextualizing and repurposing for good.

https://www.designboom.com/design/nikolas-gregory-studio-industrial-waste-scrap-stool-12-08-2015/