  |
The enviroment-friendly furniture doesn't even need to be packaged for shipping. (courtesy Bär + Knell) |
| "We wanted to show people that recycling doesn't have to be ugly
or depressing, but that it could have color, texture and life." by Elizabeth Ferber Before you toss your next shampoo bottle or potato chip bag in the trash, take it into the living room and see if the colors go with the decor. According to the German design trio Bär + Knell (Gerhard and Beata Bär, and Hartmut Knell), you may be holding the components of an easy chair or a throw pillow. Plastic waste has not always been associated with furniture, but since 1992 (with funding from the German Association for Plastic Recycling), Bär + Knell has helped alter that perception. "We wanted to show people that recycling doesn't have to be ugly or depressing, but that it could have color, texture, and life," Gerhard Bär explains. Many of the armchairs, tables, and sofas--which are constructed solely of discarded plastic--are created in the tradition of Pop art, with strong colors and comic-book lines. The Maggi chair, with its molded form and attention-getting yellow and red palette, has become a modern classic in Germany, and the Egon and Oskar confetti lamps, made from colorful plastic scraps, are being considered by the Museum of Modern Art in New York for their design store. The environment-friendly furniture doesn't even need to be packed for shipping: "Many of our chairs have been delivered by post without packaging," Bär says. "We simply stuck on the address and stamps, and sent them off." |
Keywords:
reuse, plastic, trash, furniture
| Current Issue | events + exhibitions | designmart |web picks |
| search/archives | metropolis conferences | search | international contemporary furniture fair |
| subscribe | for advertisers | who we are |
| About Metropolis Online |