Designed by old friends Richard Hutten and Michael Young, the Richard chair by Michael Young ; the Michael stool by Richard Hutten are two seating ranges fit for the circular economy. Both designers embraced circular principles by reclaiming waste and keeping resource use to a minimum, using recycled materials to create beautifully crafted pieces of furniture.
Waste Not Want Not
Richard by Michael
Made using over 100 recycled plastic bottles, Michael Young’s Richard chair is nibbling away at the mountain of plastic waste we have to climb.
Taking a life cycle approach to design, the Richard chair avoids virgin plastic and instead opts for a shell made from only 100% recycled material. An ergonomically contoured seat fits neatly onto a tubular steel frame, forming a bold profile that remains physically light and compact. Practical simplicity and elegant curves come together to make Richard a chair that is refined, durable, 100% recyclable and fit for a better future.
It takes just over 100 bottles to make the seat of each Richard chair. Bottles are sorted, washed and flaked before being extruded into fine strands that are layered to create sheets of PET felt. Pressed in the mould to form the chair shell, the felt is then water jet cut to create a perfect edge. Making best use of innovative technology, the Richard chair reclaims value from a problematic waste stream, helping keep plastic pollution out of land and sea.
‘I think the best word we can use for this is, ‘harvest’, we need to harvest the planet and clean up the damage that we have done. This is going to be a long process. I am guilty of using a lot of plastic without understanding its impact but now I am in a position to tidy up my patch with partners in design.’ – Michael Young
Michael by Richard
Made from the scrap produced in the manufacture of wine corks, Richard Hutten’s Michael stool makes best use of waste materials and helps preserve biodiverse forests.
Named after his good friend and fellow designer Michael Young, Richard Hutten’s Michael stool is made from FSC™ certified 100% recycled cork. Regenerative, recyclable, tactile and naturally anti-microbial, cork is the perfect material for a more circular world in which one man’s waste becomes another man’s resource.
Every seat of the Michael stool contains biogenic carbon, trapped in the cork instead of creating havoc in our atmosphere and oceans. Softly concave, the seat sits on a tubular steel frame, forming a simple and playful profile finished in a textured powder coat in a range of earth colours.
Hand harvested using age-old techniques passed down through the generations, cork comes from the cork oak forests of the Mediterranean basin, biodiversity hotspots that support endangered species and endemic flora found nowhere else on the planet.
Highly specialised, cork harvesting is the highest paid agricultural work in the world, providing economic security to over 100,000 people, creating an ecological and economic symbiosis.
‘Optimism and playfulness, that is the way to get the message through, that we have to change. I want a better world and I’m optimistic that we can get a better world, for me there is no other way than being optimistic.’ – Richard Hutten
This article was originally included in our new publication, Material Intelligence | Design Understanding.
Read on below to gain an in depth understanding of our products and guiding company and sustainability principles.
Michael Young
Richard Hutten
