Eco Stools - a furniture series with a big future

So as part of my study into organic connections and naturally strong structures I'm working on a series of stools that will be the base of my eco-stool range. My aim for this range is to produce a series of functional stools and chairs that are visually appealing, functional and environmentally sustainable. The first part of this process is to work on the designs in a digital environment allowing me to accurately model the structure and thus calculate load forces, experiment with different materials and varrying finishes. This will help me keep the waste, cost and environmental impact to a minimum.

At the moment I'm totally taken with two different yet highly versatile materials - bamboo and plywood.

Plywood has been around since 3500BC where there is evidence of sawn veneers being glued together crosswise to form wooden articles. The primary purpose was to give the illusion of high quality when infact the substrate that the veneers were being glues to was of a low quality. Why'd they do this? The abundance of fine/high quality wood was somewhat lacking and by using a lower quality wood with veneer the effect of opulance was achieved easily.

Plywood didn't become as we know it today until the 1900s with the invention of the rotary lathe by Immanuel Nobel (father to Alfred Nobel the man behind the Nobel prize). This particular lathe helped revolutionise the way in which veneers where cut and opened up a whole new world of possibilities to the wood species from which veneers could be sourced.

Bamboo has equally been around for a very long time with its origins dating back several thousand years to the chinese. Where it was used for many different things ranging from writing on, shoes, tiles, coats, and cooking. Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on the face of the earth and as such makes it an ideal resouce for mass harvesting and leaving little to no impact on the environment.

However, it is only in recent years that the harvesting and manufacture of bamboo products has really come to the fore. Whilst bamboo fabrics, small workable pieces of timber and matting is readily available, the production of bamboo in a plywood form or in a solid sheet form still remains somewhat of a new thing and not easily sourced.

The good news for me though is that there are a number of people embracing this material and are beginning to produce the kind of product that make it possible to produce high quality furniture items. One such manufacturer/grower is based right here in Queensland Australia and is quite literally just over an hour away from my home.

I'm hoping in the coming months to make a trip up to meet with these people to chat to them about the process of harvesting and manufacture of Bamboo and to see what they have on offer that I might be able to use in this series of furniture.

My goal is to have 3 prototypes made before Christmas of 2010 with a release of 5 stools/chairs within the first quarter of the new year. The plan to have items for sale is fast becoming a reality and I've hooked up with an importer/distributer of high end furniture in Brisbane and am in discussions with them about the possibility of them promoting/distributing my work to the greater Australian region. I'm also making inroads to potentially having a friend in Milan do some promoting for me to the local stores. Oh how nice it would be to be at the Milan Furniture Fair exhibiting my goods.

So here's a sneak peak at one of the stools I'm working on right now (it has since taken a slightly different diretion though) with a second and third currently in early conceptualisation stages. Not only am I exploring the possibilities of plywood and bamboo as building materials but I'm exploring the use of alternate media for finishing the pieces - including using felt, bamboo fabrics, recycled/reclaimed/eco threads, ribbons and buttons.