Furniture

Case Studies

According to the European Environmental Bureau, 10 million tonnes of furniture are discarded by businesses and consumers in EU Member States each year, the majority of which is destined for either landfill or incineration (Source).

New designs and concepts for office and laboratory furniture will be demonstrated at Cranfield and  Warwick Universities in the UK and Camerino University in Italy. 

Modular Furniture for Circularity

Furniture built with particle board is popular, but small damages can lead to whole furniture pieces being thrown away as it is not easily fixed. Moretti’s new modular concept creates a variety of products by combining a few simple components. This allows reconfiguration when the user’s needs or desires change, and the timeless design aspect keeps the furniture from quickly appearing outmoded.

Fasteners

The modules and its component parts are connected with invisible coupling system that consists of durable perforated metal cylinders as fasteners. This delivers a very simple and very solid assembly that effectively avoids using any glue. 

This  also simplifies assembly and dis-assembly for easy reconfiguration of the modules into different furniture units. 

Finally it makes for more efficient maintenance and the exchange of damaged parts for new ones, thus avoiding disposal of the unit and preserving the value of the furniture.

Upholstery
  • The upholstery for the modules utilizes only 100% recyclable materials. 
  • Panels for the chairs and beds are made by partner NTT using circular air laid non-woven materials.
  • The covers for the backing of the modules use a sliding padding system instead of velcro or adhesives, making replacement easy and efficient.
  • The chair seat is fixed using a pin and slot system, again avoiding any the use of any permanent fastening system. 
Particleboard production

Particleboard

The particle board being used is produced in cooperation with KEAS and utilizes innovative eco-binder formulations developed by partners Akzo and Cranfield. The particle boards can be made with 100% waste content, and up to 50% particleboard waste while still maintaining good material properties and very low formaldehyde emmissions.

A non-formaldehyde based binder developed by Cranfield has also been tested and has shown similar promising results. 

 

Initial calculations show that a rental model for institutional furniture, in which the manufacturer can maintain the furniture and control the lifecycle, can yield positive results after 3.5 years.

Non-woven Panels for Sofas

NTT provided non-woven panels for three different sofa designs, whereby the right half of each sofa consisted of the new material and the other half the original materials. The three sofas could then be tested by consumers to understand consumer perception of furniture made from recycled materials.

Because of the pandemic, only sofa B could be tested. The results show that the right side with the recycled material is found to be significantly less comfortable than the left side with the original materials. However, and perhaps surprisingly, testers that were informed that the right half contained recycled material were significantly more likely to find it more comfortable.

Demonstration Locations

Coventry University - Singer Hall

Rooms in student accomodation will be furnished using the Moretti modular system.

Coventry University - The Hub

The Spirituality common room in the HUB building will be have 32 chairs, 8 tables provided for end-user testing.

If you have any questions on the protorype development and testing, or would like to get in contact with the Ecobulk team for any other reason, please use the form below.