German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic has teamed up with Italian furniture brand Magis to develop a contemporary monobloc chair made entirely from recycled polypropylene. The recycled polypropylene is obtained from the waste generated by Magis’ own furniture production and from that of the local car industry. The patented material excludes almost all “virgin or new” materials and can be recycled again 100% after use. This way, Bell Chair forms an almost closed material cycle.
“Our aim was to develop a high-quality chair with the bare minimum of material,” says Konstantin Grcic. “This target was important to us for ecological reasons, but also from a commercial point of view.”
The chair weighs just 2.7 kilograms, making it at least one and a half kilos lighter than average plastic chairs. This fact is testament to the use of less material and causes less energy consumption during production. The key to this saving lies in the ingenious shell shape of the chair. Its bulbous geometry is not only structurally strong, but it also makes the chair extraordinarily comfortable and visually appealing.
“We realized that there was an opportunity and a need to address certain issues surrounding the project,” continues Grcic.
The responsibility of the design does not end with the product itself. Magis developed a logistics concept for Bell Chair to save additional resources. This entails a specially-designed reusable delivery pallet, which can stack up to 24 chairs. As a result, less packaging material is used, and the vertical stack reduces the footprint during transportation. At the same time the pallet doubles up as store display for retail partners and is made from the same recycled plastic as the chair.
The chair is available for € 65 (∼ $76 USD) and comes in three colours – Sunrise, High Noon and Midnight – and can now be ordered through the Magis retail network and the dedicated website here.
