Growing Trend

Designers are putting organic into action. Like the mole on your back, or the mold on your leftovers, the following designs have grown, mutated and morphed in unexpected ways. 

Meant to recreate the fleshy overspill of an obese person sitting on a chair, Charlotte Kingsworth’s ‘Hybreeds’ are vintage chairs with upholstered rolls, bulges and muffin tops.

Somewhere between shrink wrapping and a by-product of the birthing process, ‘Xylinum’ is named after the bacteria that consumed sugar to make it, and takes upholstery to a whole new interesting yet off-putting new level.

Carl De Smet’s ‘Memories of the future’ chair is designed to grow from a small square of memory foam when heat is applied. Gershon Kingsley’s ‘Popcorn’ playing in the background optional.

Because every room in the house could use a little fungus, Shinwei Rhoda Yen embedded mushroom spawn onto the underside of a simple stool. Less cumbersome than a planter, ‘Mushrooms ate my furniture’ brings a little of the forest in, and will liven up your omelets all winter long.

Produced partly by robotic arm and partly by silkworm, MIT’s ‘Silk Pavilion’ is the epitome of technological meets organic, culminating in a large fluffy cloud.

Bridging the gap between a little overgrown to wildly ungroomed, Nacho Carbonell’s hedgehog-like chair-like objects don’t invite casual leaning.

Maarten De Ceulaer’s ‘Mutation’ furniture pieces are an experiment gone wrong, but also horribly right. This probably what bacteria furniture looks like.

Like capitonné melanoma in your interior, Robert Stadler’s ‘Tephra Formations’ and ‘Bifurcations’ have an uneven contour and grow in odd places.

by Claire Toussaint Abbiyesuku