Green design, environmentally-conscious design, sustainable design; whichever you choose to call it, it is at the forefront of the design world and the larger world alike. Government money and that from corporations is being allocated to finding new energy solutions.   Nearly every architect or designer’s website includes a description of their commitment to sustainability.  Although the terminology has reached main-stream media somewhat recently, the practice of sustainability has been around for some time. 

Chair created from denim scraps. Designed and produced by Scrap Lab.

Re-use and re-purposing are the original green movement and the ultimate in sustainability. Scrap Lab, part of the architecture department at Kasetsart University in Thailand, has taken this belief to a new level, stating that “there’s no such thing as waste.”  Scrap Lab is utilizing leftover materials from industrial processes to create new products. Scrap Lab has designed and produced a chair of denim scraps, sewn together in a quilt-like fashion and assembled into a sling-back chair. The chair looks entirely comfortable and inviting, in both its form and materiality. “Through the recirculation of wasted materials such as scraps and off-cuts, energy and labor time will be saved and regained into the economic circuit. Renewed resources and valuable products induced and managed by Scrap Lab will increase economic return, continual employment and environmental benefits.” In a time where economic and sustainability issues are at the forefront of society, this is a chair you won’t feel guilt investing in.

“Scrap Lab will be the driving force in reactivating and reanimating left over’s, off-cut and any kind of solid waste. The focus of Scrap Lab lays on the innovative recirculation of industrial produced waste,” according to the group. Plastics, wood, metal and fabric… Scrap lab does not seem to discriminate; their creative minds are strategizing new uses for all types of material waste. They are creating a system to catalog these materials efficiently, utilizing as much of the so-called “waste” as possible

“Scrap Lab aims to be at the forefront as an ecological combatant, particularly with current concerns for the global environmental pollution and the rising interest regarding global corporate social responsibilities (CSR).” Other companies and products are also striving to be socially responsible. Rebound Chair uses recycled rubber, grommets, and lacing to create a sexy, sustainable stacking chair. Also check out the work of Counter Evolution and Environment Furniture.

via Core77