Flatpack furniture benefits the environment, which is a great reason to like it. Another little mentioned boon is that it makes moving easier. When on the verge of moving, I obsess about the weight of my furniture, promising myself that I’ll replace all my heavy pieces with featherweight counterparts–that I’ll put my research skills to use and design my entire living space around lightness. I usually lose my dedication soon enough. If nothing else, I can’t let go of my bookshelves and my books. What I might do in the future (and this is realistic) is to slowly add well-designed flatpack pieces.

Offset Stool. Designed by Giorgio Biscaro.

A great candidate is the Offset Stool by Giorgio Biscaro. Constructed of “plywood strips bent at the same angle,” Offset uses a single sheet of plywood that is cut into the aforementioned strips. The pieces get “drilled and paired to three pantograph cut legs through three couples of little iron bars to avoid glueing and provide extra stiffness.” This results in an uneven seating surface, which then gets milled “with the help of a guide.” Having never witnessed the production, I can’t speak to the quality of the instructions, but the final “trilobated shape of the seat” fits people’s bottoms much better than the standard flat seat.

Like other flatpack and/or bent plywood designs, Offset Stool minimizes scrap and speeds up production–and this makes the furniture more affordable: “Plywood is really little expensive, and this, combined with the easiness of production method (single radius bent, waste reduction and one-gesture mill) sets price really really low.” The packaging is light as well. When disassembled, Offset fits into a 43 × 21 x 8 cm box–bringing me back to my initial point about facilitating my next move. Offset Stool comes with painted legs but maintains the natural seat in order to highlight the material and construction. I like the yellow–in fact, I’m already picturing two Offset Stools in my future kitchen!