I guess these Terrazzo Wireless Chargers from Bentu Design put the tech in archi’tech’ture! Designed as a neat fusion of consumer tech and home-decor, Bentu Design’s W10 charger comes with an exterior made from Terrazzo, a unique composite of concrete with marble/ceramic/stone chips suspended within. The terrazzo exterior gives the W10 almost a coaster-like appearance, allowing it to wirelessly charge your phone while acting as a nifty little decorative element on your tabletop.
The W10 charger’s terrazzo exterior uses concrete mixed along with recycled ceramic particles, cement construction waste, quartz fragments, and other crushed stones, most of which are virtually useless. By binding these waste particles into concrete, China-based Bentu Design has perfected the art of repurposing trash and making well-designed products out of terrazzo. Bentu noticed that globalization, and an increased demand for ceramic pieces, had driven a wave of new factories in Chaozhou… creating jobs, but also dramatically increasing the amount of ceramic waste produced. The name ‘Bentu’ translates to ‘native’, as the studio focuses on understanding and using raw materials that are local.
The terrazzo W10 chargers come in 4 colors – white, green, blue, or orange, with ceramic and quartz particles randomly suspended in the concrete. The natural beauty of this randomness makes each X10 unique and one-of-a-kind. Under its bespoke speckled exterior, sits a Qi-compatible charging coil, available in 5, 7.5, and even 10W outputs, and the coil connects to a power source via a discreet USB-C plug located in the charger’s side. Each W10 measures 10mm in thickness, and weighs a mere 210 grams. It’s pretty enough to be mistaken for a coaster, although I’d probably ask you to caution your guests against placing any hot cups filled with coffee/tea on them. There’s no clarity on whether the X10 is waterproof, although I kind of hope it is!
Not only is the X10 made from recycled ceramic/stone scrap, it’s also designed to be repurposed/recycled too. After the wireless charger’s service life is over, the internal circuit board and electronic components can be extracted by gently breaking apart the terrazzo shell. The shell itself can be smashed into chunks and reused in another terrazzo piece, giving it a fresh life altogether. Moreover, to reinforce the X10’s sustainable approach, the wireless charger even comes in fully recycled all-paper packaging.
Designer: Bentu Design
