Steelcase // Poly Chairs

PROJECT/

Thing Tank principal Chris Luomanen worked with Steelcase’s Metro division (now Coalesse) on their award winning Topo furniture system when he was at IDEO.  So when Metro decided to develop a line of ambitious PET felt arm and lounge chairs, they brought in Thing Tank to collaborate with their internal design team on the design and manufacturing strategy. The result was Poly.

Recycling is good.  But turning post consumer waste into high ticket items has been really difficult.  Somehow they still feel a little like garbage.  PET felt is an exception.  Made from recycled soda bottles, PET felt can be pressure formed into gorgeous, organic forms.  And even though it is stiff like a plastic, it retains the soft, warm feel of felt.  

New materials always present new challenges and opportunities for designers.  They require new approaches to both structure and form.  Tricks that would work with plastic or wood wouldn’t work in felt.  So we invented new ones. We ended up with chairs that couldn’t be made in any other way, and were perfectly suited to the way they were made

RESULT/

Poly Lounge won a Silver Best of Neocon in 2005