While the world of haute furniture design is by now exceedingly familiar with the use of outlandish materials to craft oddball pieces, these furnishings by Italian designer Jens Praet are particularly intriguing: while some artists are ones to build from books, others make furniture from hundreds of pages of—what else?—back issues of Elle Decor. Praet collaborated with the magazine to create the four-piece series Shredded, which was exhibited last week at Design Miami 2012. To make each piece, Praet cut up more than 100 pounds of the glossy shelter pub—the bookshelf itself is made of 66 pounds of the stuff, the table is 57 pounds—combined it with clear resin, and set the mixture in a mold. The result? Sturdy—"firm as wood," Design Milk says—utilitarian-inspired furnishings that save some 140 pounds of paper from a landfill. From a philosophical standpoint, Praet has also managed to add complexity to Elle Decor's traditional role; whereas the magazine routinely "makes" brands just by featuring them, here it's the physical pages that have, well, actually constructed physical things. So what's next? Furniture crafted from balloons, perhaps?
· Furniture Made From Shredded Elle Decor Magazines by Jens Praet [Design Milk]
· 50 Exquisite Furnishings Crafted From Oddball Materials [Curbed National]