If you’re wondering where old scooters go to die, I’ll give you a couple of clues–it starts with an I, ends with a Y, is shaped like a big boot, and full of wonderful cheese. And if you’ve never been to the cradle of European civilization, than perhaps you’ve never had a close encounter with a Vespa–those zippy, nearly soundless scooters mounted by Euro-Trash everywhere, always good for a quick zip up the impenetrably narrow cobblestone streets of the continent’s hill towns, even better for knocking the grin off a white-sneakered North American tourist’s implacably complacent face. Not to fan the fires of the “Vespa wars,” for this post is dedicated to the admirable cultural and ecological reclamation on display in Bel and Bel’s Vespa Chair, a nifty retro task model that takes its inspiration and materials from this European cultural icon.

Vespa Chair. Designed by Bel and Bel.

Barcelona-based Bel and Bel is a young consortium of artists and designers who’ve taken up space in the burb of Viladecans, having refurbished a 17th. century estate into a showroom/studio/collaborative art space, all in the service of an urban conservationist aesthetic: “We are surrounded by ‘useless’ objects falling into disuse. Everyone seems to melt what no longer is wanted even when it is not damaged… so we decided to reuse what may seem useless and give a new life, most artistic and durable.” The notion parallels that of Ruckercorp’s Chris Rucker, with a singular distinction: while Rucker re-claims construction detritus, Bel and Bel appropriate component parts of formerly functional consumer products. Just so, the back of the Vespa Chair is constructed of the scooter’s prominent fairing (wind shield), or the front half of the Vespa’s signature “uni-body.”

At first glance the incorporation may seem a bit indulgent, until one realizes that the chair’s structural strength is owed to this portion of the Vespa’s steel unibody. Thus, the chair sports the same legendary durability of the scooter. Throw in an hydraulic piston for height regulation; rigid foam and seat back upholstered in leather; and seven different styles with five different frame colors and four back/seat colors, and we get “a unique product and a sample of the most Avant-garde Art design that’s also an extra emotional charge for all Vespa lovers.”

Via designboom.