Luca Gnizio is an industrial designer from Milan who firmly believes that the life of discarded products can be further extended by transforming them into beautiful and useful articles.
Luca’s BOOKFOR Armchair is constructed entirely from recycled materials including iron bars recovered from reinforced concrete, rubber tips from old walking sticks, and clothing, plastic material and paper remnants.
Photos by Serena Riccardi.
P. Quirk on 09.04.2010 at 02:32 AM
I’m sorry but that chair is just butt ugly. I know people have different tastes but this is nothing more than old, used fabric stacked haphazardly on top of a rebar frame. Recycling is one thing but re-purposing trash into a different kind of trash isn’t all that helpful.
paul on 09.04.2010 at 10:03 AM
This is an interesting chair. More details about it would be nice. It looks adjustable. It also looks like it has been made from brand new rebar (and adjusting hardware) as opposed to recycled “materials including iron bars recovered from reinforced concrete.” It looks like brand new rebar that has never even been on a building site. One of the problems with “upcycled, repurposed and recycled products is that you don’t really see the difference in the vast picture of ecology. Construction rebar can easily be recycled period without being made into something. It is easy to label something recycled because it looks recycled and it’s photographed in a vacant factory setting. As the previous commenter states: “….nothing more than old, used fabric stacked haphazardly on top of a rebar frame.” Stacking fabric, rubber and an assortment of materials isn’t really new or unusual. I think this design has lots of promise but drop the recycled label and design it with a seat that looks good, is comfortable and make the whole thing sustainable.
Sleek design on 09.07.2010 at 07:38 AM
Didn’t Tejo Remy produced something like that as soon as 1991 (check the Droog website)? It was (and still is) called the Rag Chair… :-S
Jaime (post author) on 09.07.2010 at 09:53 AM
I don’t think that the Rag Chair and this chair are very similar at all, but yes they both use old fabric.
Elodie- Sleek design on 09.07.2010 at 10:21 AM
Hello Jaime. Yes, entirely made of recycled odds & bits, like the previously-mentionned chair :-)
The “book/chair” concept is appealing though. Flipping a sheet to change the atmosphere, this is versatile and clever (but the launching of the Selma Chair in the Ikea PS range last year did not meet great success)
Jaime (post author) on 09.07.2010 at 10:30 AM
The flipping of the fabric to change the appearance also reminds me of the Darwin Chair by Stefan Sagmeister: http://www.droog.com/products/0/darwin-chair/
Elodie- Sleek design on 09.08.2010 at 08:12 AM
True! (I wonder how it feels, though…). Just like the 18th Century, when seats coud change upholstery whith each new season.
dia36 on 09.14.2010 at 14:14 PM
sagmeister!