Sustainable furniture is taking the design industry by storm, they’re a step towards making our homes and our daily lives more eco-friendly and sustainable. They’re an attempt to cast aside toxic materials, and instead, add furniture designs to our home that won’t rot away on Earth for years once we’re done with them. And one such intriguing and thoughtfully designed sustainable furniture design I recently came across is the Kelp Chair by Interesting Times Gang.
Designer: Interesting Times Gang
Designed by the Swedish design studio Interesting Times Gang, the Kelp Chair has a new and improved version. The new 3D-printed version of the Kelp chair is built from seaweed instead of recycled plastic! The original Kelp chair was designed in 2022 by Interesting Times Gang and it was made using recycled fishing nets and wood pulp. The chair was named because of the unique lines of its form, which were heavily inspired by ocean vegetation.
Since the chair was originally released, the studio wanted to recreate a new version made with its namesake algae! By using kelp, they were using an organism that has significant value in the steady conversion to bio-based materials. “Macroalgae play a vital role in capturing carbon and produce at least 50 percent of Earth’s oxygen,” said Interesting Times Gang. “Scaling up the cultivation and utilization of kelp has a pivotal role when it comes to mitigating the effects of climate change.”
The Kelp Chair is constructed from a kind of kelp called the Nordic sugar kelp. The Nordic sugar kelp is a brown seaweed that grows in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans. This seaweed is then converted into a bioplastic, and then 3D printed. The Sugar Kelp cair also includes a cushion which is made from a material from an identical source. The unique upholstery is crafted from Keel Labs’ seaweed-based Kelsun fiber, while the foam filler is made from a kelp biofoam which is produced by the Norwegian start-up Agoprene. This innovative chair is supposed to be biodegradable till the end of its life cycle.
