It’s okay to admit that we’ve bought more furniture while quarantined than we probably should have – I know I’m guilty. When you’re boxed between the same four walls in the same room, bringing in new energy in the form of furniture welcomes some new excitement and change, but with the demand for furniture goods increasing, the need to produce them also increases, leading to an overall rise in greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing these increased rates of consumerism and how they negatively affect the environment, Ariyan Davoodian designed MeshTure, a modular furniture system that gives users creative control in transforming their living spaces without any new, store-bought furniture.
Davoodian’s MeshTure furniture system employs the use of steel piping, quick release clamps, and expandable elastic textiles to create triangular steel pipe structures. The triangular module’s three sides can be resized and joined together to produce different furniture designs like coffee tables and light fixtures. A single triangular module consists of six steel pipes joined together through telescopic tubing, which enables users to adjust each module’s size according to their needs. Wrapped around the surface of each module, an elastic textile adapts to each module’s changing size and provides warm, translucent lighting when outfitted as light fixtures. Three quick-release clamps fasten modules to one another and provide dependable sturdiness when using MeshTure to configure furniture pieces like tables or nightstands. While the adaptive nature of MeshTure has its benefits in mitigating the effects of irresponsible goods production, it can also offer aid in disaster relief. The ease with which MeshTure can be reshaped to meet growing needs equips users with a sense of confidence and know-how, which might prove particularly useful in environments where medical stations or makeshift tents are needed for global catastrophe aid. Overall, Davoodian envisions MeshTure to be both practically useful as is the case in ecological disasters and emotionally gratifying for consumers who might give in to their online shopping cart too quickly and often, providing a modular furniture system built to match the world’s growing demands and apparent need for reduction.
Davoodian believes that the need to fill our spaces with more and more stuff could be rooted in each of our desires to redesign our living spaces so that they align with our personal needs. In doing so, we might fill our spaces with unsustainable goods that are designed for future obsolescence, chucking one piece of furniture in the garbage to then purchase its upgrade or replacement – an endless cycle that negatively affects the environment, workers’ conditions, and our psychological welfare. In recognizing society’s obsession with instant gratification and the incredible demands of consumerism, Davoodian prioritized recyclability, authenticity, and longevity – in the designer’s own words, “MeshTure was designed to provide people [with] other possibilities; ways they could explore themselves.”
Designer: Ariyan Davoodian
