Sustainable material combinations for the upholstery industry

The message of the project

The ultimate objective of this project is to design a piece of furniture or a collection of furniture that is simple to disassemble, refurbish, and recycle in every aspect, resulting in an aesthetically beautiful and sustainable household item with a long life cycle.

The idea behind the project

The partnership's designer is Annabella Hevesi, the creator and chief designer of I O, who has vast experience with metal surface treatments and experimental upholstery processes. She frequently employs long-forgotten, yet sustainable, materials and processes in her creations. JAB is one of the most important textile manufacturers in the EU, producing goods that are competitive on a European scale. The former partnership makes the latter collaboration more promising. The two are now developing furniture based on bauhaus-era links between Hungary and Germany. JAB joins the cooperation by offering recycled upholstery that is both flexible and sturdy enough to endure the friction that happens when metal pieces touch in the long run.

The purpose of this research is to create a joint (system) that will result in an appealing and long-lasting structural solution in the furniture sector. It is critical that the connection can be disassembled using standard upholstery materials and special recycled metal pieces (composed of copper, aluminium, and steel) created using additive technology. The joint approach eliminates the need for glue and achieves the appropriate form and ergonomics through mechanical distortion of an inexpensively customised block-like sponge rather than cutting. In the case of standard upholstered sitting furniture, stitching, stapling, and glueing have a negative impact on the recyclability and reusability of the utilised pieces. Instead of the traditional plastic-based powder coating, they will investigate the use of waxing and different patination techniques are used to create more sustainable technologies in the surface treatment of metal pieces.

The stapling will be done to rethink the usual method of tufting the upholstery at a single location. The hoped-for outcome is that the filler material may be moulded with the assistance of correctly selected upholstery and longitudinal stripping, eliminating the need for expensive and polluting sponges or wasteful cutting into moulds. They want to work with upholstery that has a long life cycle and is flexible enough to support the design and surround the filling as envisaged.

What next? 

The anticipated output is at least one piece of seated furniture that is ready to enter the worldwide furniture market, using the technologies developed throughout the cooperation - for the joint, filling, and metal surface treatment. The finished furniture will fulfil the sustainability standards, meet the expectations of distorting the filling sponge without the use of external and wasteful variables, and result in exceptional beauty.

The project's outcome allows for the creation of an entire furniture collection utilising the technologies created and assembled within the partnership's time period, as they are not confined to a single item. The finished product is not only environmentally friendly in terms of ingredients and manufacture, but it also has a lengthy life cycle. There are relatively few upholstered furniture items on the market that match the ideal sustainability standards, and both the market and end consumers are coming up with sustainable yet attractive things. Once on the market, the furniture has the ability to stay with the end users for a long time, offering a lovely atmosphere for them and future generations. The design makes fresh use of classic tufted upholstery, reviving it. The design is experimental, but it is also environmentally friendly in terms of materials and procedures, resulting in lovely furniture. This project is unusual in that it combines innovation and tradition while transforming it in a sustainable manner. Because the tufting will alter the upholstery filling, no further damage or external intervention is required.