A plastic evolution
At a time when sustainably sourced, solid wood furniture can be punishingly expensive and the price of metal is soaring, designers and manufacturers at the Milan furniture fair were embracing synthetic materials once dismissed as cheap.
Plastic is on the rise, partly because of new materials such as crystal-clear polycarbonate and technological advances that allow for new shapes and styles without compromising strength and support.
“It allows you to make a statement with numerous design, color and texture options,” said Lindsay Burns, chief visionary officer for the store Threshold in Austin, Texas. “The price makes it easy to take this risk without the huge financial commitment of a forever piece.”
At this year’s Salone, she said she noticed “a lot more personality and character, even humor in the new designs.”
Few people could resist cracking a smile upon seeing Philippe Starck and Eugeni Quitllet’s Out/In high-back easy chair, which looked like an oversized ice cream scooper on tapered legs. Rising nearly 5 feet tall, the chair is a single continuous piece of plastic made with the same rotational molding technique that Starck employed to create his Bubble Club plastic sofa. Prices for the Out/In chair will start at $1,313 at Linea in Los Angeles and Santa Monica.
Jasper Morrison’s Trattoria Family for Magis reinterpreted traditional woven rush seats in plastic, adding a matching ribbed backrest on a wooden frame. Available in a range of colors including a transparent yellow, the chair will sell for about $375 at Jules Seltzer Associates in West Hollywood. Magis also launched Flower, a ribbed plastic tub chair by venerable French modernist Pierre Paulin.
Studio Archirivolto designed a collection of stacking plastic chairs for Green. Nord has a Scandinavian profile. With a top rail, it becomes Sud-Ovest, a more French design. Add another piece of plastic and you get Est, an Asian style with oxbow arms.
Magis President Eugenio Perazza worried that the trend could cause “a frantic rush toward plastic,” resulting in mediocre products that turn off some consumers.
Quitllet isn’t quite so sure.
“In the ‘60s, plastic was a revolution,” he said. “Today it’s an evolution, living at the same speed as technology. I’m sure that we will go to a super-plastic or bio-plastic that will bring new challenges and ideas.”
Magis is already at work on it. This March it produced the first “liquid wood” chair made from ground-up woodworking waste materials and natural binding agents that can be processed with the same tools and molds used in plastic injection production. Perazza called it “a 100% biodegradable and recyclable-to-infinity product.”
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