We+ is a Japan-based studio that explores ways to utilize materials that might otherwise be discarded. Refoam is one of those explorations, where styrofoam is melted down and remade into stark and minimal furniture objects.
Styrofoam poses a major problem for recycling, as it isn’t traditionally recyclable, and ends up filling landfills and floating into our waterways and oceans. It continues to be used so prominently because its lightweight, cheap, and good at providing protection.
The Refoam furniture pieces are handmade, and minimal in form, with a black color that resemble hardened lava. Below is a video of the process for forming the furniture shapes.
We love the idea of creating useful items from material like styrofoam, which has been such a difficult one to recycle.
From We+:
“Refoam is a series of furniture pieces that attempts to reframe today’s inappropriate and overly complex relationship between humans and materials. This project is part of we+’s research project, “Urban Origin”. By considering Tokyo as the origin of used materials, the project returns to the starting point of the relationship between humans and materials – “using vernacular materials and treating them simply with our own hands” – and explores new values for styrofoam.”
See more about Refoam and we+ on their website, and Instagram. All photos © We+.
