Eco-friendly design: Chia seed chair

Three design students at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have designed a chair designed to grow plants. When creating the Chia-Chair, Alice Hultqvist, Emelie Sjoberg, and Linnea Nilsson proceeded from the fact that it is focused primarily on nature, and only secondarily on people. Instead of a traditional back and seat, the chair's wooden base features a knitted, woven tube that serves as a bed for chia seeds.

Students presented the Chia-Chair at the Stockholm Furniture Fair as part of the Making Transparency exhibition dedicated to post-humanist design. The object was exhibited in the student-oriented section of the Greenhouse. The girls planted seeds in the chair a few days before the start of the fair so that visitors could observe the stages of chia growth throughout the duration of the exhibition. The seeds were mixed with water before planting, watered twice daily, and covered with plastic sheeting at night to retain moisture.

The designers conceptualized the item by thinking about the negative impact we humans have on the planet when we put our needs above all else. “Over the last century, humanity has gained control over natural resources and most non-human life forms,” the students said. “Our needs have been met for centuries at the expense of nature and wild animals, and now we are faced with the consequences of this. With this project, we sought to redress the imbalance by creating a product that demands respect for the plant as part of the beautiful natural world that we have exploited for too long.”

The frame of the Chia-Chair is made of ash, and the pillow is a wool tubular construction with polyester filling. Designers say the chair is less a functional piece and more a statement. In the future, they say, greenery will increasingly appear in our homes and workplaces. “As urbanization continues to limit living spaces and disconnect people from nature, it is only natural that our desire to incorporate elements of nature into our homes and furniture will only grow in the future,” the girls added.