This rereleased iconic Danish chair is built using recycled plastic and coffee bean shells

Posted on 28/02/2023 by Srishti Mitra

We often underestimate the importance of a great chair! When in reality we really shouldn’t. We spend the majority of our day sitting on chairs, whether we’re working in our home office, enjoying a meal, or simply sitting and reading a book for leisure! Hence, this piece of furniture needs to be not only comfortable but ergonomic, and aesthetic as well, and if it manages to be sustainable as well, then it really hits the spot! And one such chair design that I recently came across is the Conscious Chair by Mater Design.

Designer: Mater Design

Copenhagen-based furniture brand Mater Design recently re-rereleased a popular chair from the 1950s called the Conscious Chair. Now, why is the Conscious Chair called so? The Conscious Chair is called the Conscious Chair because it is crafted using recycled plastic, combined with coffee bean shells and sawdust. The chair was originally designed by Danish furniture designers and architects Børge Mogensen and Esben Klint in 1958. The chair is characterized by a simple silhouette and a curved wooden seat.

Matek Design took this classic chair and modernized it by crafting the back and seat from Matek – a material made by Mater Design using post-consumer or post-industrial waste. “Coffee bean shells, extracted during the roasting process, are an example of fiber material – sawdust from wood production is another,” said Mater Design. “The binder material is made from plastic waste or a plastic-based alternative. ”

“[Matek] enables us to make furniture from waste materials by combining fiber with a binder,” said the company. “The technology behind Matek allows us to capture carbon in our furniture by recycling waste into timeless classics using resources already available to us, instead of virgin materials.” This helps to create chairs that have been made using both wooden and recycled composite material elements. The Conscious Chair is available with oak-wood frames in color options of green, black-stained, or natural finishes. The seat and back come in options of wood waste grey, coffee waste light, and black. So, you can pick the color theme that suits your personal taste and preference, as well as the interiors of your home.

The post This rereleased iconic Danish chair is built using recycled plastic and coffee bean shells first appeared on Yanko Design.

Women with Type 1 diabetes at greater risk of death than men

Posted on 08/02/2015 by Jessica Hannan

Bad news for women with Type 1 diabetes. A recent study by the University of Queensland's School of Public Health shows that women with Type 1 diabetes have a 40 percent higher risk of death than men...

Libratone intros Zipp portable AirPlay speaker with DirectPlay, expectedly wrapped in wool (update)

Posted on 26/09/2012 by Joe Pollicino

If you've been following the surge of AirPlay speakers that started hitting the market in 2011, you've likely feasted your eyes on the spendy wool-clad systems by Libratone. While its larger Live and Lounge units have primarily been purposed for households, its new Zipp speaker is the being touted as the "first and only" portable AirPlay speaker. Make no mistake, unlike B&O Play's portable AirPlay-equipped Beolit 12 ($800), the Zipp's loaded with Libratone's proprietary PlayDirect protocol, meaning it doesn't require a separate wireless network / router for iDevices to connect to it over the air. The Zipp moniker is a play on the swappable wool grill which cozies around its vertically-standing tubular enclosures. Weighing four pounds and measuring in at 10.2 inches high by 4.8 inches in diameter, this "portable" unit is a good bit larger than the Blutooth-equipped Jawbone Big Jambox placed sideways, but it'll certainly fit in a backpack -- hey, it does have a leather carrying strap. Thankfully, that weight is partially due to its internal rechargeable battery, which should last up to eight hours.

As far as the speakers go, you'll find a duo of 1-inch ribbon tweeters facing the sides for the left and right channels, along with a 4-inch up-firing woofer. The rig also features Libratone's signature FullRoom design, which forces a 360-degree dispersion of the sound by way of deflectors in front of the tweeters. Beyond that, it'll naturally work with Libratone's existing iPhone app, allowing you to change the DSP on the fly for optimal output regardless of its placement in a room. The Zipp will hit Apple Stores later this October wrapped with a single red or grey zippered grill for $399, while other retailers will carry the $449 Classic Color and Funky Color editions, which each come with a trio of those wool grills (black, blue and red for the Classic, and black, pink and yellow for the Funky). Past that, a single grill by itself will cost you a relatively expensive $49 directly from Libratone. In the meantime, join us past the break for more details about the unit itself and PlayDirect, our initial impressions and a hands-on video overview.

Gallery: Libratone Zipp AirPlay speaker (hands-on)