apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

From Furniture Style:

"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.”

And because the chair is made using a mold, it can be mass-produced efficiently, instead of using lots of energy to produce one chair at a time.

Konawicz’s design is also specifically engineered to be stackable to reduce the amount of fuel required for shipping."

Via: core77