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A child sitting underneath a tree with their foot on a stool
CategoriesSustainable News

Anne-Sophie Rosseel creates colourful furniture that kids can assemble

By Zarkon Group,
A child sitting underneath a tree with their foot on a stool

New York-based interior designer Anne-Sophie Rosseel has created a sustainable children’s furniture collection that locks together for easy assembly.

Called the Interlockables, the collection includes tables, seating and storage for children and is the debut collection from Rosseel‘s House of RoRo brand.

A child sitting underneath a tree with their foot on a stool
Interior designer Anne-Sophie Rosseel has created a collection of children’s furniture

“Inspired by children and their ability to grow and learn at an astonishing speed, the collection consists of multifunctional and versatile children’s furniture that is sustainable, playful, and practical,” said the team.

“The designs are unselfconscious and simple in their use of materials, provoking a feeling of delight.”

A table in the sunlight
The collection is made of natural materials and dyes

Primarily made of Birch plywood and finished with non-toxic, plant-based dyes, the collection consists of furniture made of geometric shapes just slightly askew.

“I was looking for ways to combine toy storage with functional furniture that would look good in our home while reducing the clutter,” said Rosseel.

A wooden table and chair for children
The furniture comes flat-packed and locks together so that children can assemble them, with the help of a guardian

“Kids grow fast and if I was going to make a product, I wanted it to be as sustainable as possible and not have it end up in landfill after 2 years.”

The furniture comes flat-packed and slides and locks together so that children – with the help of a guardian – can assemble the pieces.

A blocky rocky chair
The collection includes chairs, tables and storage

The pieces were designed to be gender-neutral and not age-specific, with some elements that can be adjusted as a child grows.

The Box Table rests on rectangular legs that double as storage containers, which are accessed with removable panels on the table’s countertop.

A stool with small eyes cut into it
The pieces are sustainably sourced and manufactured in Canada out of birch plywood

Once a child outgrows the table, the countertop can be removed and the boxy legs converted into nightstands or side tables.

The Raymond Rocker chair fits flat-pack in a pizza-sized box and features slightly curved legs for “the child that doesn’t like to sit still”.

Artisanal dyer Audrey Louise Reynolds created a series of stains for the collection made out of plant-based pigments including mushrooms, flowers, mica and moss.

The dyes include a natural oil stain and five bold colours, although they will change seasonally and custom colours can be requested.

A small side table with wide legs
They are made of playful, geometric shapes

The pieces are ethically sourced and manufactured in Canada, with leftover scraps from CNC cuts reperused into “small toy wood pulls or puzzles”.

A pair of permanent sticker sketchy “eyes” comes with each purchase to be applied to the furniture at will.

Anne-Sophie Rosseel is a Belgian-born New York-based interior designer. She founded Rosseel Studio before launching House of RoRo in 2023.

Other furniture designed for children includes sloping wooden chairs that encourage “active sitting” by Studio Lentala and playful stools made of olive pits by Eneris Collective and NaifactoryLAB.

The photography is courtesy House of RoRo.

Reference

A subscribe and recycle model for kids' bicycles and toys 
CategoriesSustainable News

A subscribe and recycle model for kids’ bicycles and toys 

By Zarkon Group,
A subscribe and recycle model for kids' bicycles and toys 

Spotted: Cycling is widely recognised as one of the most sustainable modes of transportation available and a great form of exercise for various age groups, but researchers point out that at the end-of-life stage, bicycles have “a significant (and uncalculated) carbon footprint.” And as fast as children grow, so does the volume of waste they produce as they outgrow everything from shoes and clothes to bicycles and toys. 

Determined to reduce their waste, a group of friends with children ranging from four to fifteen started a circular, direct-to-consumer subscription company called Gro Club. Offering bicycles and other children’s products such as car seats, strollers, and bunk beds, the company provides equipment maintenance, home delivery and recycling. Subscriptions are available for either 12 or 18 months, and the cost is approximately 70 per cent less than buying elsewhere. Customers can opt to extend their subscription for a nominal fee, upgrade to a larger-sized product, or buy the item outright.  

Based in Bengaluru, the Gro Club says that its average cost is Rs 6,000 (around €68) per year or Rs 500 (around €5.70) per month. Bicycles are custom-made in-house, and the company reuses each bicycle frame at least five times for maximum carbon emissions savings. Every bicycle that’s returned to the company is taken apart and then reconstructed with a fresh paint job, meaning that every bike looks new when it’s delivered. 

Gro Club also offers bicycles for adults at a slightly higher subscription price of around Rs 549 (around €6.20) per month. All subscriptions include a lifetime warranty on parts and home service maintenance support.

Having completed a pre-seed round of funding and with more than 5,000 subscribers in Bengaluru, the company is planning to use its next round of funding to expand both the number of products available on subscription and its servable locations. Subscriptions will shortly be available in Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Pune.  

The subscription model is being applied to many products and services, with Springwise’s archive including options for reusable nappies and office furniture.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Norm Architects creates minimalist HQ for children's brand Liewood
CategoriesInterior Design

Norm Architects devises understated HQ for kids’ lifestyle brand Liewood

By Zarkon Group,
Norm Architects creates minimalist HQ for children's brand Liewood

A refined palette of oak, plaster and steel defines the interior of the Liewood headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, designed by local practice Norm Architects.

The pared-back 2,200-square-metre office was conceived to give prominence to Liewood‘s colourful, Scandi-style children’s clothes, toys and homeware.

Norm Architects creates minimalist HQ for children's brand Liewood
Norm Architects has completed Liewood’s Copenhagen headquarters

“With the ambition to create a comfortable space with a somewhat understated character, we worked to let the space obtain its significance through the thoughtful use of tactile elements such as textured plaster walls and contrasting elements like oakwood and steel,” explained Sofie Bak, an architect at the practice.

Staff enter the five-floor office via an airy light-filled lobby that is anchored by a rounded counter, roughly washed with sandy-beige plaster.

Norm Architects creates minimalist HQ for children's brand Liewood
Plaster podiums provide display space on the first floor

Cone-shaped pendant lights are strung along the ceiling while oversized stone tiles are laid across the floor, helping to “emphasise the grandeur” of the space.

A pre-existing staircase curves up to the first floor, which accommodates a showroom. This part of the building formerly served as a production hall, with a vast scale that could easily feel empty and unwelcoming, according to Norm Architects.

Norm Architects creates minimalist HQ for children's brand Liewood
At mealtimes, staff can gather in The Parlour

To counter this, the practice constructed what it describes as a “warm wooden core” – a house-shaped oakwood volume with built-in shelves for showcasing Liewood’s products.

Large, plaster-coated display plinths are dotted across the rest of the room. At the back is a short flight of wide, wooden stairs where staff can sit and chat throughout the day.

More products can also be presented here on bespoke podiums that, thanks to cut-outs at their base, are able to slot onto the steps.

The building’s first floor also contains The Parlour – a kitchen and dining area where Liewood employees can enjoy meals together. It features a large travertine table, a series of plump grey sofas and graphic art pieces by the Danish designer Sara Martinsen.

Norm Architects creates minimalist HQ for children's brand Liewood
Traditional work areas can be found across the rest of the HQ

Work areas throughout the rest of the HQ are furnished with practical desks and storage units that match the off-white walls, while meeting rooms are fronted with panes of glass to foster a sense of openness.

As the building’s original staircase didn’t extend all the way to the fifth floor, Norm Architects installed a spiralling set of white-steel steps.

These grant access to a space the practice refers to as The Apartment: a secondary showroom designed to have a more intimate, homely feel.

Norm Architects creates minimalist HQ for children's brand Liewood
The top floor accommodates The Apartment, a more intimate showroom

Elsewhere, Norm Architects recently took its minimalist aesthetic off-shore when designing the interiors of the Y9 sailing yacht, decked out with supple suede furnishings and wood-panelled surfaces.

The photography is by Jonas Bjerre Poulsen of Norm Architects.

Reference

Nontalo stools arranged in four different positions
CategoriesSustainable News

Olive pits form modular Nontalo kids’ stool by Eneris Collective

By Zarkon Group,
Nontalo stools arranged in four different positions

Design duo Eneris Collective has collaborated with Barcelona-based biomaterials company NaifactoryLAB to produce a playful stool for children made from waste olive pits.

The Nontalo stool is constructed from six modules – three P-shaped pieces that can be combined and positioned in different ways and three straight rods that hold them together, forming a variety of shapes from a three-legged stool to a bench seat and many alternatives in between.

Nontalo stools arranged in four different positions
The Nontalo kids’ stool can be assembled in various ways

All of the modules are made entirely of Reolivar, a smooth cork-like material that NaifactoryLAB created by mixing olive pits with bio-based binders and other natural ingredients.

Spanish designers Irene Segarra and Irene Martínez, who came together under the name Eneris Collective for this project, describe Nontalo as a seating design “where play, spontaneity and sustainability are in harmony”.

Close-up on the Nontalo stool by Eneris Collective
The stool is made of Reolivar, a biomaterial made from olive pits

The duo created the stool after NaifactoryLAB invited them to experiment with Reolivar and develop new applications for the biocomposite.

“For four months, we worked with this new material,” Martínez told Dezeen. “We got to know the possibilities it has, the pros and cons, and what its limits are.”

“The idea was to generate a structure that doesn’t have the obvious shape of a stool with a seat and legs, but maintains the same function,” she continued.

Nontalo stool in background with pieces disassembled in foreground
Three rods hold the stool together

The designers began by deciding on a series of words and concepts to define their intention of the project before sketching proposals and interweaving these different ideas.

“Our inspiration throughout this design stage was children’s construction sets,” said Martínez.

The duo initially created a right-angled design for the P-shaped modules but ended up turning the legs out by five degrees after realising it created better weight distribution as well as bringing a sense of harmony.

To lock the pieces together, users simply have to slot the straight rods through their central opening.

Eneris Collective shaped the Reolivar pieces in custom moulds, which Martínez says has the benefit of limiting waste as there are no offcuts.

The material can be composted at the end of its life or returned to NaifactoryLAB for recycling. The stool’s mono-material design makes this particularly straightforward, as there are no other materials or components to separate.

A hand assembles several pieces of brown, cork-like furniture by Eneris Collective
The design is meant to invite play and spontaneity

Over the course of its life, the material will age according to its environmental conditions and will last longer in dry, indoor environments away from humidity and rain, according to NaifactoryLAB.

The biomaterials company first developed Reolivar in 2020 using a bunch of olive pits grabbed from a dish at the end of a meal. Since then, it has been turned into a range of products including lamps, bowls, mirrors and trophies.

Eneris Collective is now working to develop a wider Nontalo Kids seating collection, building on the same shapes and ideas.

A number of other designers are experimenting with biomaterials in an attempt to produce more sustainable furniture. Some recent examples include mycelium lampshades from Estonian company Myceen and a stool and side table by Carolina Härdh, made from food waste for Gothenburg restaurant Vrå.

The photography is by Valentina Masallera and Caetano Portal.



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