Tube+9 Lounge Chair

The Tube+9 Lounge is a thoughtfully-designed, cheap-to-produce chair that isn't half-bad looking. The design and materials, while both TreeHugger-friendly, aren't the real reason we like the chair. We found more value in the philosophy and procedure behind producing it: designed with the user, environment, and budget in mind, all materials are either recycled or recyclable, and the simplicity of the construction keeps both material waste and cost extremely low. The frame is constructed from four identically-formed pieces of plywood, minimizing material waste. The seat is made from nine rigid cardboard tubes found in many packaging and manufacturing plants that use cellophane wrap. All of the tubes are wrapped in a recycled or recyclable fabric for comfortable sitting and capped with aluminum rings to finish the edges. The breakdown of material costs is:

3'x4' plywood = 100% recyclable = $15
9 cardboard tubes = 100% recyclable = free
18 aluminum rings = 100% recyclable = $30
3 yds. fabric = 100% recyclable = $45

The result: a 100% recyclable/recycled, $90 lounge chair that meets the user's, environment's and budget's needs. It's also simple enough that building a reasonable facsimile would not be difficult (ours might replace the cardboard tubes with something a little stronger, for sake of longevity, though it'd be easy enough to recycle the worn tubes and use the same fabric and rings to build some new ones). In any case, we're having a hard time finding where these retail, but that's not really the point. Thanks to Takashi for the tip! via ::Yanko Design