International design heavyweight Patricia Urquiola and Architonic Editor-in-Chief Simon Keane-Cowell started their discussion at Milan Design Week under attack by the DAAily bar‘s enchanting natural backdrop, created by the floral poet Anne Vitchen. However, as the pair went on to discuss, the Nuez Lounge Bio armchair in which they were seated treats the natural world with care and respect, being formed with a fully compostable bio-polymer shell.
‘When we speak about polymer, we always think it’s a plastic or something from fossil,’ explained Urquiola, ‘but polymer doesn’t always mean that. You can have a kind of bio-polymer coming from organic material.’ After starting the design process to create a plastic shell chair family, Urquiola, together with premium Spanish manufacturer Andreu World, turned to the developing science of bio-material manufacturing. ‘The good news is that these kind of bio-polymers react in a [traditional] kind of mould to create very thin shapes.’
