Sustainable re-editions of design classics

In the age of conscious and sustainable design as well as recycling and upcycling trends, leading design brands’ right to exist has been called into question by many. Luckily Vitra and the rest were quick to respond and reinvented their classic pieces in a sustainable manner.

In 2021, a plastic Vitra chair might not be so chic as it used to be 10 years ago. Today, luxury does not come from the price tag or the logo, rather the certainty that the object we integrate into our lives was made in an eco-conscious manner. This has become obvious to leading design companies, too, who started to manufacture their popular design furniture in a sustainable manner for this exact reason. Check out FRAME‘s roundup of the best sustainable reeditions below!

Tip Ton Re (Barber Osgerby for Vitra)

The already mentioned Tip Ton chair released in 2011 was originally made of plastic. Vitra redesigned this model with the help of designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby using recycled household waste. This time they also got rid of artificial colorings, and thus every chair is produced in the natural grey color of the material, varying a little from chair to chair.

LC2 and LC3 armchairs (Cassina)

Back in the day, the iconic leather armchairs were born as a result of the collaboration of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. Cassina came up with a similarly impressive collaboration: Fondation Le Corbusier and the design department of Politecnico di Milano developed the present-day, ecological versions of the icons. They mainly used polyols from bio-renewable sources and oceanic waste to produce the re-edition.

Crona Light Eco (Brunner)

Brunner‘s frequently copied chair wouldn’t hold its ground today in its original format either. From now on they will manufacture the seat of the new edition out of recycled plastic, while you have two choices for the seat’s support: a frame constructed from sustainably forested beech wood or a steel sled base.

Componibili Bio (Kartell)

Kartell has plenty of iconic plastic objects, one of them being the Componibili modular storage unit, designed by Anna Castelli Ferrieri in 1967. The design stayed, but the plastic had to go: from now on, the object is made of a plastic-like biomass material and is available in four colors.

Oceanic (Normann Copenhagen)

26 plastic bottles reclaimed from the sea equal the cover of an armchair. This is the formula developed by Normann Copenhagen in collaboration with Camira Fabrics. The cover is made entirely of oceanic waste and comes in 16 shades evoking the colors of the shores.

Duna 02 Eco (Arper)

One more chair we are sure to have seen before—or a replica of it at least. Arper‘s team also tries to keep up with the changes and thus now 80% of the upper part of the seat evoking the shape of a shell is made of recycled plastic.

Source: FRAME

• design
• 2021
• sustainability
• kartell