The SHRINX Easy Chair represents a transformative leap in sustainable furniture design. Its upholstery isn’t polyurethane (PU) foam—a material infamous for its environmental hazards, limited recyclability, and petrochemical root. Instead, it uses heat-shrunk textile to cover the chair’s all-metal frame.
This product from Danish furniture brand +Halle and designer Boris Berlin challenges the conventional method of creating a soft seating by omitting PU foam completely. Instead, it used the innovative SHRINX 4903 fabric from Krall+Roth. It’s a semi-translucent mesh textile with self-supporting properties made from 68 % polyester and 32 % polyamide.
Rather then stretching the fabric, it is draped around the chair then shrunk, allowing it to reshape. It’s stitched as a “bag,” mounted on the Seat Frame from above, then secured to the frame around the base using plastic strips. The same method applies to mounting the fabric to the Outer Frame of the chair. Meanwhile, the inner corner behind the seat uses a zipper from below. Then the base frame of the SHRINX Easy Chair screws on to both Seat and Outer frames for support.
The fabric provides the structure needed for comfort and support, while maintaining the sharp aesthetic of a classic lounge chair. It offers just the right amount of tension and flexibility to conform to the body, while retaining its form over time. Hence, despite its foamless construction, the chair offers the same soft feeling and level of comfort as with foam-padded seats.
Moreover, the translucent quality of the fabric reveals the structural integrity of the SHRINX Easy Chair: low-slung and sculptural. It creates lightness and translucency, making it a less bulky choice for seating in public or private spaces.
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Images courtesy of BorisBerlin/Design
