Vincula Chair & Ottoman
2020

The Vincula Chair began after my using mattresses found by the side of the road as a source of cheap polyurethane foam for experimenting with alternate concrete processes. After soaking in a cement bath, the wet pieces of mattress foam are bound with chains to create the form. As the concrete cures, the curves of the foam are petrified solid. The chains are left as a lost formwork, keeping the form as it dries - beginning its new life as a lounge chair

Polyurethane foam mattresses are a common non-recyclable waste object in our design culture. Dirty, bulky, ubiquitous, synthetic, they place a huge strain on waste management resources at the end of their product life. The foam cannot be recycled as new mattresses and upholstery demand virgin, clean materials. After their domestic death, mattresses are either piled up in landfill or hauled out to the nature strip, left to be someone else’s problem. 

Produced for Friends & Associates Life & Death 2020.

This event was part of Melbourne Design Week 2020 and organised by NGV in collaboration with Creative Victoria