The brainchild of Industrial Product Designer and Jerusalem native Itay Kirshenbaum, the furniture you see pictured above is… wait for it… grown. Yes, that’s right, watered and grown. These oddly shaped canvas stools begin life as simple canvas bags filled with a mix of concrete powder that, when liberally soaked (or ‘watered’ ) with a hose will harden and begin to “grow” into a bona fide backyard furniture item. Give it 24 hours to set and shape it to form with a little help from the built-in support wires and voila! you are now the proud new owner of a canvas covered concrete outdoor stool… now quickly hide it because your mother-in-law is coming to visit and this thing is just about the ugliest piece of furniture ever conceived….
The concept is pretty cool though, and has been put to somewhat more practical use in pop-up concrete disaster shelters among others.
Note to Itay and other prospective furniture designers: While we in the furniture world agree that pop-up furniture has it’s place and can be super convenient with the proper conceptualization and design, it would be hard to imagine that a potential consumer would be willing to compromise so completely on the aesthetics of the design in favor of the “pop-up” convenience. Top quality furniture is, and shall forever remain, the number one priority and the standard by which consumers will shop.
Still pretty cool though…
Thoughts?