Bamboo is universally praised as a sustainable material, but when used in its rawest form is it comfortable?
Beauty has been said to increase sustainability, but what about ease of use? We’ve seen a few sustainable bench designs out there already, from Yoav Avinoam’s sawdust bench to Green Lullaby’s cardboard work bench – but never a bench made out of the quickly renewable and sustainable material heralded by environmentalists the world over, bamboo. Israeli designer Gal Ben-Arav’s ‘Bamboo Bench’, pictured above, is a new eco-friendly twist on this furniture staple.
But is it truly comfortable (and therefore sustainable)?
Consisting of a simple cast aluminum base holding together a bunch of raw, unprocessed bamboo reeds, the design of Ben-Arav’s bench is low on resources and invested energy. The bench by Ben-Arav (whose work was featured recently during Jerusalem Design Week) is fairly simple but the visual effect is nevertheless impressive.
Instead of fashioning the bamboo to suit the shape envisioned by the designer, Ben-Arav’s design molds itself to the natural form of the material. (This also means that those who sit on the bench will feel every natural bristle and bump of the reeds, but that’s a different story.)
The bench comes in two versions, either with or without a back. In both designs the visual emphasis is on the color and natural patterning of the bamboo, but the backless version comes even closer to nature.
When sitting on Ben-Arav’s backless bamboo bench, one could even imagine sitting in the middle of a bunch of bamboo reeds.
:: designboom
Read more about bamboo design:
Bamboo Redux: Israeli Designers (And Daniel Fintzi) Do it. Why Don’t You?
Are Muslim Women Ready for Bamboo Hijab and Chadors?
Build Next Year’s Sukkah With Hybrid Bamboo (aka Solar Schach)
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
