Chair

Creating a circular chair

Design + Materials

This meeting room chair was designed by Helena Pels, student Industrial Design at the University of Twente under traineeship at Arapaha. The main research question addressed in the traineeship was: “How to design a fully recyclable meeting room chair made from PLA for the company Arapaha?”

Polylactide (PLA) is a bio-based material made from lactic acid. Commonly found in fermented milk products, as well as agricultural products such as maize and sugarcane, however, it has never been used in a chair before. Can it be done? Characteristics of PLA makes it a great replacement for commonly used plastics.

Additional research has to be done to fully finalize the final design. In particular on the bottom parts of the legs, and the cushioning of the chair. Adding these last components to the design, will provide the final concept of the meeting room chair.

Present + Future

Based on the work of Helena we believe it can be done, a fully circular chair made predominantly with bio-based materials. We are working on this now within the project Sentar.