What’s new: Magis’ Bell chair
The design and selected materials were based on creating a chair everyone could afford – while doing it as ecologically as possible.
AT FIRST GLANCE, the Bell chair from Magis may look like a typical plastic garden chair, although a very comfortable one. However, the chair surprises its sitters: the Bell is indeed made of polypropylene, but the whole project has been carried out in an extremely ecological way, from start to finish, using only a minimal amount of resources.
Bell is a round, soft-shaped chair that looks like it’s inviting you to sit in its lap.
The chair is made of high-quality recycled plastic.
The plastic chair is available in four attractive colors.
The goal of the Bell project was to create a high-quality but affordable design chair using as little material and energy as possible.
The designer Konstantin Grcic himself admits that he was critical at the beginning. “But the more I got into it, the more I could see a great opportunity for our project.”
Konstantin Grcic saw the potential in creating an economical, but well-designed and well-engineered chair.
“There is a need for chairs that are both affordable and versatile, but the products on the market tend to be either cheap or too exclusive,” the designer says.
The material and technology used were chosen with this in mind: with plastic injection molding, it was possible to keep the price reasonable without compromising on the design or functionality.
The multi-purpose chair is suitable for indoor and outdoor use, in homes and public spaces, for large p as well as private parties – the only limit is your imagination!
Try combining different colored Bell chairs with each other and different furniture. Magis' round First table is also suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.
However, the aim was not to create another single-use plastic chair on the market, so special attention was paid to the type of material used. “The big breakthrough came with the commitment from our supplier to provide us with a high-quality recycled material,” Grcic explains the process.
That plastic is obtained from industrial waste. Some come from a local car factory, and some from Magis' own furniture production – so the chairs become chairs again.
Some of the recycled polypropylene comes from Magis' own furniture production.
The use of materials is extremely minimal, as the Bell chair weighs only 2.7 kilos.
The result is Bell: a soft-shaped chair that uses only 2.7 kilograms of plastic, almost half the weight of an average chair. Because the material use is minimal, producing the chair also uses less energy.
Magis developed a reusable delivery pallet to save resources for logistics and packaging. The specially-designed platform is made from the same recycled plastic and can stack up to 24 chairs.
Despite its light weight, the Bell chair is extremely durable. It is possible to stack up to 24 chairs on top of each other, making it easier to store chairs at home or in public spaces and reducing the carbon footprint of its packaging and logistics.
And to close the circle, the Bell chair can be 100% recycled again, if it ever comes to the end of its life.
See also:
• Magis' Bell chair >
• All products by Magis >
Text: Susa Pääkkönen Images: Magis
Published on 9 Jan, 2023
