London-based design firm LAYER designed the ‘Vale’ collection for US furniture brand KFI Studios. The Vale collection is a range of eco-friendly chairs and stool created from recycled PET bottles, and are a protest against the plastic waste that is drowning Earth’s oceans and landfills at an alarming rate. The Vale collection is LAYER and KFI Studio’s eco-friendly solution to this ever-growing issue of plastic waste. In a day and age, where almost 9 million tons of furniture are found in landfills, the Vale collection is a refreshing change and a fine specimen of sustainable furniture.
Designer: LAYER and KFI Studios
The elegant-looking chairs and stools feature shells and seats built from a tactile felt material. The tactile material is manufactured from recycled PET bottles, and it is eco-friendly and quite sturdy, durable, and easy to maintain. The PET bottles are carefully and consciously spun into the non-woven felt, then heat-pressed into the desired shape, creating a soft and impact-resistant material. The felt shells and seats are intricately combined together with the steel frame using simple bolts, to make them super easy to remove if need be. This allows users to recycle the chairs and stools once their life cycle ends.
Besides their eco-friendly nature, the chairs and stools are also quite aesthetically pleasing to the eye. They are inspired by the beauty of nature and the timeless curves of a valley. The curved form of the furniture provides maximum comfort to the user, as well as an impressive visual impact. The artful wrapping of the shell around the steel frames brings to mind the image of rolling hills and valleys. The entire collection has a quaint minimal appeal, which lends it a timeless aesthetic, that will endure the passage of time and the varying seasonal trends.
“The Vale collection is a study in restraint – in materials, form, and design language – that echoes the restraint required to live responsibly in today’s world. In doing so, it celebrates the mindful approach of Layer as a design studio,” says Benjamin Hubert of Layer. The Vale series includes a chair, an armchair, a lounge chair, high and low stools, and an ottoman.
