Snarkitecture and Pentatonic launch sustainable furniture

On the left is two grey chairs that have been split in the middle with a tear in between them. In the right is a white table that has been split in the middle with a tear.

Pentatonic has collaborated with Snarkitecture on ‘Fractured’ sustainable furniture range

(Image credit: TBC)

last updated 13 August 2022

Circular lifestyle brand Pentatonic launched last year with duo Jamie Hall (ex-NikeLab) and Johann Boedecker (formerly of Miniwiz) championing furniture, tableware and accessories made from post-consumer waste. The brand is now launching its inaugural designer collaboration, inviting New York firm Snarkitecture to create a new furniture range, Fractured – a collection of benches and tables that merge of art, design and sustainability.

‘The material approach and technological approach of Pentatonic really opens possibilities, especially for a practice like ours,’ says Alex Munstonen, co-founder of Snarkitecture, on the series that is directly made up of material waste. For example, the bench is made up of 240 plastic bottles, 45 aluminium drinks cans, 120 items of food packaging, and four car bumpers. These are then built using nitrogen-assisted injection moulding, extruding the aluminium into long bars, this then takes shape via CNC machining and is then anodised.

An overhead shot of a grey table top that has been split in two with a tear in the middle. — *Snarkitecture and Pentatonic’s Fractured furniture collection is conceptually split into two*

The Brooklyn-based duo are an ideal match for project, bringing their conceptual and slightly playful aesthetic the collection. The architecture of the pieces, the concept of lots of waste turning into a one piece, and then snapping this right down the middle ‘almost like a child’s puzzle’ say Daniel Arsham, co-founder of Snarkitecture, adds humour to the highly engineered collection.

‘This collaboration was a real demonstration of the power and potential of working with post consumer waste,’ says Hall. ‘There is too much trash on our beaches, in our oceans, there is so much that could be used again and again with the right technology.’ A step in the right direction for furniture design, we would say.

Go behind the scenes of the Fractured furniture collaboration

A shot of The ‘Fractured’ bench, which is a grey double chair with a tear down the middle. — The ‘Fractured’ bench is constructed from 25 sheets of Plyfix, Pentatonic’s luxurious felt covering made from 100 per cent recycled plastic, pressed into a single 1.5 cm sheet that is heatformed into a curved, two-seater bench. 240 plastic bottles, 45 aluminium drinks cans, 120 items of food packaging and 4 car bumpers are recycled into the design

The ‘Fractured’ table, which is a rectangular table broken in the middle. — The ‘Fractured’ table is constituted of 1,290 aluminium drinks cans, 140 items of food packaging and coffee cup lids and 6 car bumpers.

INFORMATION

Fractured is available exclusively at Pentatonic’s website

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Sujata Burman is a writer and editor based in London, specialising in design and culture. She was Digital Design Editor at Wallpaper* before moving to her current role of Head of Content at London Design Festival and London Design Biennale where she is expanding the content offering of the showcases. Over the past decade, Sujata has written for global design and culture publications, and has been a speaker, moderator and judge for institutions and brands including RIBA, D&AD, Design Museum and Design Miami/. In 2019, she co-authored her first book, An Opinionated Guide to London Architecture, published by Hoxton Mini Press, which was driven by her aim to make the fields of design and architecture accessible to wider audiences.