Circular stools

More than 200 visitors came to explore the ‘Bilingual Design for Circularity’ exhibition, meet the young designers, and attend the interesting panel on the role of heritage in design and circularity at The Grand Egyptian Museum for the Bilingual Design for Circularity exhibition on Friday December 1st 2023.

The 29 participating young Egyptian designers and design students from the Royal Danish Academy showcased the fruits of their hard work – 15 stools inspired by Danish design tradition, Ancient Egyptian furniture, and circular design principles that were manufactured in Damietta the week before at Pinocchio Furniture Factory under the supervision of Designdustry and the Royal Danish Academy.

This year’s program, in its fifth round, is introducing a new element of circularity. Circular design is a design strategy aiming at minimizing or ending waste in furniture throughout all its process from design to manufacturing to use to discard. How can we “close the loop” and build furniture from either biological materials that can safely return to the natural world or biodegrade naturally over time? If non-natural materials are used, how can we ensure that they can be reused or repurposed once their use in the design is finished? From that also comes the question of durability – How can we design products that can last but also have mechanisms for repair, repurpose and remanufacture?

‘Dawn’ by Asger Didriksen & Nicole Wong

Materials used: Sissoo Wood

Circularity aspects: Designed for disassembly and flat-packed, making it easy to replace worn-out pieces, ship, and store.

‘Vee Stool’ by Heba Mahfouz & Hazem El-Zeky

Materials used: Sissoo wood, moulded seat made of animal glue and Sissoo wood dust

Circularity aspects: The aspect of circularity in this stool relies on the fact that cutting wood produces a lot of sawdust that goes to waste. So in this stool, we decided to use our waste (the sawdust) and mix it with animal glue in a mould to create the seat that lies on top of the wooden legs. Also the entire structure can be disassembled into 3 sections along with the moulded seating, to make it easier for shipment as well as replacement.

‘Silo’ by Karoline Bøttern, Natalia Sączek & Josie Andersen

Materials used: Beech wood

Circularity aspects: The Silo stool is made entirely out of Beech wood. The steady structure is only connected with glue, which ensures durability and the possibility of subsequent renovation.

‘Sa’ by Capucine Dubs & Nanna Storm 

Materials used: Beech wood and Danish paper yarn

Circularity aspects: Natural materials that can be separated and reused.

‘Scrap’ by Ahmed Essam & Bassem Ashraf

Materials used: Beech wood scrap

Circularity aspects: The stool is mostly made of factory waste nearing a zero carbon footprint in terms of material sourcing. Very strong seat structure using minimal materials. No use of glue or nails in the seat assembly. Possibility of replacing wooden leaves if damaged.

‘The Rope Stool’ by Andrea Burelli & Mette Korte

Materials used: Sissoo wood and Danish rope (paper yarn)

Circularity aspects: Structure in locally sourced wood, joinery, and seat in rope, no glue, nails or screws. Design for disassembly. Only natural materials.

‘Dobara’ by Mazen Moussa & Omar Al-Tawansy

Materials used: Base made of Sissoo wood. Seat made of laminated papyrus paper and attached to the base with linen rope

Circularity aspects: Dobara is designed with sustainable materials and sustainable production process and to be easily assembled and dissembled with local materials. Also it uses the minimal amount of materials and minimum amount of waste as is reflected in its weight and design.

‘Dead Stool’ by Nils Peltier & Frederik Refer 

Materials used: Beech wood

Circularity aspects: In our design we aimed to work sustainably within the production. The main approach was to do slight alterations within a factory setting to have as little leftover as possible and thereby utilising close to all the material we were sourcing. 

‘Thebes Woven Stool’ by Persia Duncan & Peiyao Duan 

Materials used: Beech wood and cotton bands

Circularity aspects: Thebes Woven Stool is manufactured without the use of synthetic materials or glue to reduce its environmental impact and to increase its ease of disassembly.

‘Duck’ by Mohamed El Haddad & Heba Alsaidy

Materials used: Base made of oak wood inlayed with teak wood. Seat made of cotton fabric.

Circularity aspects: We used natural woods such as oak and teak, in addition to cotton, as all of these materials are considered the lowest among all materials in the field of furniture manufacturing in carbon footprint. The stool can be folded which makes it easier to transport a larger amount with a very small carbon footprint. All the raw materials that we used are available from many local suppliers making the design circular too, and making the product’s life-cycle longer and the customer can easily return to the source of each raw material.

‘Pillar’ by Urszula Krauze & August Laustsen 

Materials used: Base made of beech wood. Seat made of beech-veneered laminated birch plywood.

Circularity aspects: Flat-packed, easy self-disassembly, possibility of replacing damaged parts.

‘Mamar’ by Zhraa Alshafeei & Nisreen Ezzeldeen

Materials used: Base made of beech wood. Seat made of cotton fabric.

Circularity aspects: Foldable, flat pack, less material for a strong structure, natural wood & natural fabric.

‘Papyrus Stool’ by Aida Rasmussen & Amalie Skriver 

Materials used: Oak wood and raw papyrus

Circularity aspects: The Papyrus stool is a minimal design made with natural materials. In our process we explored a double-curve geometry and experimented with raw papyrus in unconventional ways. This curiosity along with our interest in ancient Egyptian archetypes resulted in a design which is not only weightless in expression but uses as little material as our structure could afford. Ultimately, our stool draws on a traditional ancient Egyptian archetype in both form and approach to material.

Gandofli by Ida Gufler & Niklas Fiedler 

Materials used: Base made of beech wood. Ball made of Sissoo wood. Seat and rope made of cotton fabric.

Circularity aspects: The use of materials is minimal and the stool foldable. It is made without composite materials and constructed with simple connections, it can be disassembled again.

‘Hamtat’ by Ahmed Essam & Bassem Ashraf

Materials used: Beech wood, bio-based plastic

Circularity aspects: The stool is made of three sets of three symmetrical pieces designed for easy disassembly & reassembly. Possibility of replacing only damaged parts instead of the entire stool. No use of glue or nails. Flat packed. The 3D printed connection is made of bio-based plastic that is 100% biodegradable.

Watch the full presentation of each stool by the designers:

This project was managed by Project Officer Doaa Fayyad. The project is facilitated in collaboration with Designdustry, Pinocchio Furniture Factory and the Royal Danish Academy.

All photos and video by Meow Productions.

Read more from DEDI:

Closed loop design

Meet the eco furniture makers

Bilingual stools in Denmark