This chair by Dutch designer Floris Wubben was made by binding and splinting the branches of a willow tree, forcing them to grow into four legs.
A seat and backrest were then cut into the trunk and the whole thing inverted.
The chair was designed in collaboration with artist Bauke Fokkema.
Here's a tiny bit of text from Wubben:
Upside down
This chair is made of a (inverted) willow tree. The legs have been obtained by twisting and splinting its branches and letting it dry into the final shape. The seat and back were naturally kept in line with the bole’s silhouette. This project had been put in practice jointly with the artist Bauke Fokkema.
See also:
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| Briccole Venezia by Matteo Thun for Riva 1920 |
Christmas Tree Furniture by Fabien Cappello | Harvest by Asif Khan |
There's a foot-binding joke in there, somewhere…
Could they have coaxed it into taking shape with water and sunlight. Something about the force involved doesn't sit (no pun intended) right with me.
the dutch really know how to paint themselves into a corner.
What happened to the rest of the tree?
and THIS is called greend design?
poor tree – forced first, then executed …
trauma sit
I'd rather prefer an association with nature vectors, I find it far more efficient than fighting against them.
I'm not sure I see the logic in this chair being posted in Green Design, where most have to do with recycling, reuse, repurposing or other environmentally friendly things. Forcing a tree to grow in a totally unnatural way just to make an unattractive chair, seems the antithesis of Green.
Hm. Interesting stuff, to be sure. But one whole tree for one chair? I hope the rest of the wood was used for something else.
Willow trees don't die if you chop down the upper part.
So, there is no tree waste!!
Not only do willow trees tolerate being polarded to practically nothing but the majority are grown with the sole purpose of coppicing so to be made into a thing of beauty like this one has is surly a better fate than a cricket bat or firewood… Very green and very beautiful chair.