Promotion: Italian furniture brand Arper has created Catifa Carta, a chair that the company claims can sequester carbon dioxide.
It is made out of PaperShell, a new composite material made from paper combined with a natural resin binder, which the makers claim is entirely circular.
The chair was originally released in 2001 under the name Catifa 53. It is characterised by a simple structure comprised of an all-in-one shell that acts as both a seat and a backrest, placed on top of a variety of base styles.
The Catifa Carta chair's seat is made from a paper composite. Photo is by Alberto Sinigaglia. Top image is by Salva Lopez
Arper rereleased the chair during Milan design week 2024, calling the new version Catifa Carta as it is made from paper. The brand aimed to create a new iteration of the recognisable chair with a shell component made from an environmentally-conscious material, instead of conventional plastic.
It is the first practical application of the PaperShell material in a piece of furniture.
Twenty-nine sheets' worth of paper were used for each shell. Photo is by Salva Lopez
"Catifa Carta features a re-engineered shell made of PaperShell, a revolutionary new material made of composite wood by-product, which provides the strength and comfort essential to Catifa's now iconic, bi-curved silhouette," said Arper.
"A first-of-its-kind innovation, PaperShell dramatically reduces Catifa Carta's impact on the environment by doing what trees do: sequestering c...