There may be no heat involved
Marjolein van Gelder, Programme Manager Sustainability at Forbo Flooring Systems , March 2019
There may be no heat involved
“There may be no heat involved, but it’s hot stuff nonetheless” says designer Elvin den Haan about his and Jan Nijland’s latest Lonc chair: the Slim. Not only is this chair cold-pressed, requiring significantly less energy to make, it is also produced using a by-product from Zaanstreek-based linoleum factory, Forbo. At his studio in The Hague, Den Haan shows me a wonderful example of Dutch Design: a slim chair, void of any superfluous details.
Wooden chair seats are usually pressed using heat. The material used for the Lonc chair is an exception to the rule. The Slim chair is made of Accoya wood, furniture linoleum and thick paper. The latter being a by-product of Forbo’s linoleum production: the end of the roll. Lonc saw this as a perfect medium for the furniture linoleum it knew it wanted to use. Pressing it and applying the furniture linoleum meant killing two birds with one stone: continuing to work with local, sustainable materials and ensuring that this material didn’t go to waste.
What’s more, the Accoya wood used in the chair is sourced from an extremely fast-growing tree species: the Radiata pine tree grows even faster than bamboo, meaning that the materials used in the chair are sustainabe and biobased. The designer’s philosophy is indeed to keep structures as pure and concise as possible. This design also requires relatively little material to make: yet another sustainability-positive feature.
Lonc is clear on its mission to produce everything in the Netherlands. “That still very much applies” comments Elvin. “You can’t be transporting things all over the world. If the assembly were to take place in Indonesia, we might well have a cheaper chair, but that goes against our philosophy. We want products with a small ecological footprint, and to maintain control over our processes.”
A wonderful example of Dutch Design. With a dash of Japanese minimalism. And best of all, it’s available from June 2019.