Stools from local designer Caleb Ferris and design firm Prowl Studio were among the works displayed at a San Francisco exhibition centred around contemporary Bay Area design.

The Works in Progress show displayed stools, chairs and other furniture from local designers to highlight the diversity in methods and backgrounds of an evolving Bay Area design scene.

"As the Bay Area creative scene evolves in real-time, there are boundless possibilities for how it might bloom," said curators and designers Kate Greenberg, Kelley Perumbeti, and Sahra Jajarmikhayat in a statement. 

"For now, we are here to acknowledge its depth and say: it's a work in progress."

The team distributed the exhibition's pieces across metallic platforms supported by foundations of bricks.

Pieces ranged from a curvacious, duck-footed poplar wood stool marked with paint and silver leaf by Caleb Ferris, to Prowl Studio's cubic stainless steel stool wrapped in a 3D knit cover.

"Across a range of materials, forms, and functions, the participants have found a groove in the original, the introspective, and the off-center," said the team. 

Designer Ido Yoshimoto displayed a sculptural side table made of old-growth redwood and finished in a dark red textured hue. The table consists of a geometric, curved corner that runs into a darkened raw edge.

Studio Ahead created a fuzzy Merino wool stool informed by northern California rock formations, which contrasted with the smooth surface of a glass stool by curators Jajarmikhayat and Greenberg.

Other works included a baltic plywood side table with grooved sides and small, chunky sky blue legs by NJ Roseti and a white oak chair topped with a wild fleece and suede cushion by Rafi Ajl of studio Long Confidence.

Office of Tangible Space showed a flat-legged chair designed in collaboration with CNC design studio Thirdkind Studio, while Duncan Oja of Oja Design displayed a charred white oak stool with an organic, rough-sawn profile.

Fyrn Studio showed a charcoal-black hardwood stool with aluminium hardware created with replaceable parts and studio Medium Small and designer Yvonne Mouser both displayed chairs made of ash, one blackened and the other not, supported by bases of elegant, simple lines.

"As simple as it sounds, the soul of this exhibition is in the representation of physical craft and the people behind it. It's important to shine a light on this vibrant slice of the Bay Area that is not always as visible amidst a city focused on the digital realm," said Perumbeti.

"There's something really exciting brewing in this community that is just beginning to get teased out," said Greenberg.

Works in Progress was part of the wider San Francisco Art Week, which highlights art and design from the city and took place from 13-21 January.

Other recent furniture exhibitions that highlighted California designers include INTRO/LA with pieces by Adi Goodrich and Sam Klemick and the first Miami edition from Milan-based design exhibition Alcova held in a motel during Miami's art week.

Works in Progress took place at the American Industrial Center in San Francisco from 18 to 23 January 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

The photography is by Sahra Jajarmikhayat unless otherwise stated. 

The post San Francisco exhibition features "off-center" Bay Area furniture design appeared first on Dezeen.

Local design firm Prowl Studio and investment company Baukunst have shown a variety of sustainable materials including aquatic plants meant for animal feed and an electric RV at a pop-up exhibition in San Francisco.

Held in July, the BEACON exhibition was a one-day inaugural event featuring San Francisco-based companies exploring sustainable material science, technology and design.

"For BEACON, we selected twelve exhibitors who are at the cutting edge of material science, product design, and systems-level solutions – from carbon-negative protein sources to electric RV's – all while holding design as a key principle," said Baukunst in a statement.

The event was held in a first-floor space of Building 12, a former steel manufacturing plant recently renovated and slated to open later this year.

The participating companies were Anthro Energy, BluumBio, FYTO, Intropic Materials, Lightship, Maa'va, Mango Materials, Mill, Orange Charger, OurCarbon, Sway and unspun.

Each display was staged on a geometric set made of scaffolding, debris netting and plywood shelving with simple metallic lamps used for lighting.

The design is a nod to Baukunst's translation, "the art of building", and an acknowledgement that "our future is under collective construction".

Anthro Energy, a technology company that has developed and produced a flexible battery, laid its products in various shapes, with a central battery twisted into a short helix and held in place with a laboratory clamp.

The batteries are made using proprietary polymer electrolyte technology in order to flex and bend.

Available in different sizes of bands, they are intended to expand the capabilities and design of electronic devices, which are often hindered by the size of traditional batteries.

Agricultural technologists FYTO displayed different species of aquatic crops in beakers, which are grown using the company's automated systems.

The protein-dense plants will be used as an alternative to traditional animal feed, which constitutes a significant portion of global crop production.

Material innovation company Sway showcased samples of its regenerative, plastic-free packaging made of seaweed.

Using natural polymers found in the algae, the company produces a compostable, non-toxic material alternative to plastic.

Outside the building, transportation company Lightship parked its all-electric L1 RV, an EV trailer that features roof-top solar panels and a body that can be automatically compressed into "road mode" or extended for "camp mode".

"It was incredibly rewarding to provide these companies a stage unlike anything they've been able to have before, connecting with a broader community in a rich and diverse way to share the hope their work offers at this time," said Prowl Studio.

Other highlights include the all-inclusive food recycling service by Mill, a recycled material made to replace concrete by Maa'Va and 3D-weaving technology created by Unspun.

Prowl Studio recently developed the first injection-moulded chair that can be composted and collaborated with Byborre on textile informed by the California wildfires

The photography is courtesy Cody James Perhamus.

The BEACON exhibition was on show at Building 12 in San Francisco on 27 July 2023. For more exhibitions, events and talks in architecture and design, visit Dezeen Events Guide.

The post Bendable battery among sustainable materials at San Francisco exhibition appeared first on Dezeen.

Design firm Prowl Studio has proven that bioplastic can be load-bearing with the launch of its mono-material Peel Chair, which is made from corn-derived PLA and hemp fibres, at Milan design week.

Designed to reimagine one of the most ubiquitous pieces of fast furniture – the plastic stacking chair – the prototype was unveiled as part of the festival's annual Alcova exhibition.

Prowl Studio's seat was produced with the same injection-moulding process, but without the need for fossil fuels. It was created using a bioplastic composite developed by materials innovation start-up M4 Factory that can be industrially composted at the end of its life.

"Conventional plastics such as the polypropylene commonly used in plastic stacking chairs take an estimated 450 years to break down," said Prowl Studio co-founder Lauryn Menard.

"In contrast, our hemp-based PLA breaks down in just six months when under the right controlled conditions."

This makes Peel "the first injection-moulded chair that can be composted", the studio claims. Even the cushions attached to its seat and backrest are made from a novel hemp-based foam that can be home-composted and will reportedly decompose at the same rate as an orange peel.

Several furniture brands, from Alki and Andreu World to Dutch manufacturer VepaDrentea, have already explored making chairs from industrially compostable bioplastics.

But these generally still rely on solid wood or steel frames to bear the weight of the user – much like early experiments in creating plastic chairs by the likes of Charles and Ray Eames.

The Peel chair solves this issue by making use of a composite developed by M4 Factory, which mixes a common bioplastic called polylactic acid (PLA) with the coarse hurd fibres that accumulate as a waste byproduct of hemp processing.

Adding these hemp fibres allows the design to use less plastic, making it lighter but at the same time up to 90 per cent stronger, the company claims.

"Hemp is a great bio-fill that doesn't require copious amounts of water or processing to cultivate efficiently and is becoming readily available," said M4 Factory chief design officer Kyle Swen.

"Hemp also adds strength and stiffness to our base material, which is needed to meet our structural requirements for a chair."

Integrating this structural support into the bioplastic – rather than having it form a separate load-bearing frame – allows the Peel Chair to be quickly and easily mass-produced much like its petroleum-based counterparts using conventional injection-moulding machinery.

"This is extremely important in taking the leap toward implementing healthier alternative plastics because it makes use of existing systems and avoids the need for inventing new technology," said Baillie Mishler co-founder at Prowl Studio.

"Once the initial setup of a new design is complete and the tooling is set, you can produce endless amounts of whatever it is you are manufacturing at a very low cost. In this way, it is a very democratic way of making."

Currently, M4 Factory's Hemp-PLA still costs around 10 to 20 per cent more than traditional fossil plastic. But the company believes that this price difference to even as the material becomes more mainstream.

At the Alcova showcase, the Peel Chair was presented as part of an installation that aims to illustrate the product's lifecycle in reverse – showing the seating design in various stages of decomposition before tracing it back to its flat-packed delivery in matching hemp packaging.

Titled Expect Death, the installation was conceived to to encourage designers and brands to design with the end-of-life in mind, as more than 12 million tons of furniture are thrown away every year in the US alone.

In the case of the Peel Chair, its foam cushions will break down in soil in around six months without the need for an industrial composter, as they are made of moulded hemp fibres with a leather-like algae-based coating developed by material research studio Veratate.

The chair's frame would break down in a similar amount of time – but only if placed inside an industrial facility where temperature, humidity and microbial activity are carefully controlled.

Such composting facilities are currently few and far between, meaning that bioplastics rarely end up getting composted.

But Menard and Mishler are optimistic that industrial composting will eventually become a widespread service "as normalised as recycling" – although statistically, only around nine per cent of plastic waste is recycled.

"Municipalities are waking up to the benefits of industrial composting and are investing a lot of resources into ensuring that it becomes an integral part of waste management," Menard explained.

"Take New York, for example. NYC has committed to a 20-month timeline to bring composting to all five of its boroughs."

The project forms part of an ongoing partnership between the studio and M4 Factory, aimed at exploring how designers and material companies can work together to mass-produce furniture more sustainably by taking responsibility over the different stages of a product's lifecycle.

Eventually, the duo also hope to form a partnership with a manufacturer to bring the Peel Chair to market while maintaining oversight over its production process.

"The regenerative future is a team effort and achieving it will require participation through every step of the process, from the material chemistry to production," Mishler said. "Design alone cannot carry this burden."

This isn't the first time that Prowl Studio has exhibited at Alcova. Last year, the practice showcased 3D-knitted textiles imbued with images of Californian wildfires that were made from recycled polyester clothing.

The Alcova exhibition is taking place from 17 to 23 April as part of Milan design week. See our Milan design week 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

The post Prowl Studio develops "first injection-moulded chair that can be composted" appeared first on Dezeen.

Californian practice Prowl Studio and textile label Byborre are showcasing 3D-knitted textiles informed by Californian wildfires at the Exposure Therapy exhibition during Milan design week.

The fabric was used to upholster a collection of seats that are set within the exhibition at Alcova, a former military hospital and one of Milan design week's main exhibition venues.

"The exhibition starts at the height of a raging California wildfire then transitioning to a world in which the charred Earth has regenerated and healed itself," said Prowl Studio co-founder Lauryn Menard.

"This is the optimistic component that we believe is necessary for forward movement and growth in the design industry," she told Dezeen.

To make the material, the studio gathered a mix of photographs found in news articles about wildfires in California such as Camp Fire – a deadly fire that started on Camp Creek Road in California in 2018.

These photographs were then translated by hand into digital sketches on an iPad, which is when the studio decided to make the images look more abstract.

The resulting patterns subtly reference wildfires, with trails that recall burned trees, smoke and flames.

Prowl Studio collaborated with Byborre to 3D-knit the fabrics using Byborre Create – a digital tool that allows anyone to design complex 3D-knitted fabrics.

3D knitting is a fabrication method that combines digital pattern-making with knitting. The technology enables users to print complex designs at scale and quickly multiply a pattern in different sizes.

"As we got to know the machines and their capabilities, our patterns and textures took on a more complex form," said Prowl Studio co-founder Baillie Mishler.

"The technology allows for the machines to knit only what is needed for the pattern of the furniture which can eliminate waste otherwise seen in conventionally cut-and-sew assembly method," she told Dezeen.

In total, seven iterations of the material were produced from recycled polyester yarns found in recycled clothes.

The resulting fabric is three-quarters of an inch thick and is used to upholster a range of stainless steel seats such as armchairs and stools which were made locally in Richmond, California.

It comes in two reversible variations. One comes in a dark blue and neon green while the other is black on one side and brown on the other. Both have black piping along the edge.

In addition to the furniture pieces on display at Exposure Therapy, there are animations by designer Brendi Wedinger that depict burning wood transforming into new ecosystems.

On the ground outside the exhibition room, the studio planted biochar – a black residue made of carbon and ashes – from California. As visitors look out of the window they can see plants growing from the ashes, echoing how the landscape looks in the aftermath of a wildfire.

Many designers are using trees to raise awareness about the climate change emergency. Design studio Superflux created a forest installation of over 400 fire-blackened pine trees at Vienna Biennale. Dezeen rounded up five designers planting trees to highlight climate change.

The photography is by Noah Webb.

Exposure Therapy is part of Milan design week 2022, which takes place from 6 to 12 June 2022. See our Milan design week 2022 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

The post Prowl and Byborre 3D-knit images of Californian wildfires into seating upholstery appeared first on Dezeen.