Sustainable Furniture Design

Challenge: There is so much waste in the furniture industry. Our prompt was to efficiently design a functional piece of furniture out of a single sheet of plywood (125 X 125cm) with minimal waste, using as much of the board as possible.

Duration: 2 months

Tools used: Handmade with box cutter and X-acto knife

Solution: I started by researching solutions that were both sustainable and functional. Following this I sketched out possible designs and created small-scale prototypes, cutting out miniatures from cardboard and paper.

Due to the pandemic occurring halfway through this project, the tools and resources I originally had access to (including a workshop with materials) were no longer available. The research and prototyping stage of this project occurred in Sweden and the final 1:1 prototype was completed on my patio in the United States. I did not have access to power tools so I fabricated the final 1:1 stool out of cardboard using a simple box cutter and x-acto knife. All pieces lock together and the stool is functional, although it can only carry limited weight due to its material. This project taught me to constantly adapt and make the most of what is available.