Castaway Furniture: Reimagining Waste

Sustainability is definitely a running theme in design. With our consumerist disposable society, designers are making efforts to create aesthetically pleasing designs and leaving the smallest environmental footprint as possible. From shoes to clothing to even toothbrushes, sustainability is an important concept in design. And it is no different for CastAway Furniture.

Whereas most furniture brands use recycled or discarded wood to do their part in being eco-friendly, the CastAway by Ilaria Bianchi goes one step further. Rather than hiding waste, CastAway re-contextualizes industrial and urban waste into a new aesthetic language. It brings the idea of waste front and center, echoing the conceptual and physical implication of waste.

The resulting collection is both a critique on consumerist society yet also offers an idea for change. It emphasizes how almost every material can be reimagined into functional, pleasing pieces through the power of design. The design process is focused around the found material, and evolves from there, with a commitment to the recovery of waste.

After surviving a quarter life crisis, Nanette went from working in healthcare canadian meds to pursuing her loves of design, food and writing. During the day she works in social media marketing, by night she writes for Design Milk. You can find more of her work at nanettewong.com.

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