Sustainable design materials to elevate your home furniture

The Dutch architecture studio MVRDV has also repurposed aluminium offcuts into architectural lighting for walls and ceilings. “The design looks critically at the manufacturing process, finding not only opportunity but also beauty in elements that are normally discarded as waste," the studio shared. 

These lights are usually hidden in the walls or the ceiling. By placing the material at the forefront of the design, they add intriguing dimensions to the space. The lights come in pastel colours such as pink, green, and glue to contrast the industrial materials used. 

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Avocado branches would usually be discarded. But they find new life on Fernando Laposse’s shelves. Laposse raises awareness about the harmful effects of avocado farming on Mexican farmers, who rarely see the profits of their labour.

Posse and his team created the shelves over eight months. The lengthy process involved turning the flattened avocado skins into repeating tiles. The resulting shelves are full of character and ready to add a dynamic twist to any space. 

Instead of letting these building materials go to waste, Arnaud Eubelen breathes new life into them. He turned discarded building materials into multidimensional lights and side tables in this recent collection. Such pieces allow users to confront the materials used in their spaces. The furniture doesn’t shy away from its collage of materials, proudly displaying its disparate parts. But under Eubelen’s watchful eye, these pieces demonstrate a futuristic elegance that challenges one’s understanding of design.  

Max Lamb pushes boundaries with his cardboard furniture collection, displayed at the Gallery Fumi in London. Using cardboard waste that his studio accumulated over the years, he created 23 chairs with varying silhouettes. The chairs are occasionally striped with paint, but most of them show the different textures of the material. 

The designer challenged himself to use cardboard, a flimsy material. Lamb is usually known for making items out of polystyrene plastic. This collection demonstrates a creative departure from his usual designs. 

The chairs were assembled with flour and water, involving the users in the repair process. "I've chosen a simple, readily available, and humble set of materials to make this collection," he said. "All the pieces can be infinitely repaired."  

For 3 Days of Design, Danish designer Kasper Kyster bent plastic sheets by hand to form unique lamps, chairs, coat racks, and shelves. The recycled plastic’s malleability determines the shape of the furniture. “I try to make it as round as possible so it gets stronger, and the joints are also strong—I heat the plastic even more where it connects so that the surface kind of melts and is welded together,” said Kyster. 

Plastic is a unique medium to work with, often appearing stark and impersonal. With this collection, each piece blurs the line between industrial materials and organic forms, resulting in pieces that feel personalized and fit seamlessly into any space.

“I found myself searching for truth in plastic like the rings in wood reveal its age,” said designer Dirk van der Kooij. His fascination with plastic as furniture resulted in the Not Only Hollow Chair. Van der Kooij used a robot arm to 3D print hollow plastic tubes from recycled materials. Like Kyster, this blend of industrial materials flows into an organic seat. With its bold lines and hollow structure, the chair oscillates between playfulness and elegance.

Carsten in der Elst turned discarded quarry sandstone into a coffee table, highlighting its rough edges to add intrigue to the space. He sourced the sandstone from a quarry in Lindlar, Germany, where the sandstone was to be thrown away. But the dark sandstone piqued his interest. Instead of sanding them down into more geometric shapes, In Der Elst hearkens back to the rock formations from which these sandstones emerged. “It’s a bit like building with Lego,” he said. He allows the material to shine, carving out a space for itself. 

Tamara Orjola takes leftover pine needles from timber production, turning them into textiles, paper, and furniture. Upon discovering that hundreds of millions of pine trees were being cut down in the EU, she was intrigued by the possibility of reusing the leftovers. At Dutch Design Week, she unveiled benches and a carpet made from these unique materials. “With needle-bearing trees alone there is so much possible with the methods I’ve invented and designed,” she said. “You can make many products from this single source.”

Her innovation resulted in a bench that showcases unique geometric shapes. The pine needles form a fascinating pattern, adding dynamism to the bench’s organic structure. 

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