Sustainable design often fails to attract excitement because its messaging feels instructional rather than inspiring. A stool presented during Milan Design Week makes a different case through appearance and material tactility. The Alice Stool by Studio LoopLoop uses a base made from 100% recycled aluminium using Hydro 100R extrusions, coloured with a plant-based anodising process developed in-house. The colour work creates subtle gradients using controlled dyeing rather than petrochemical-heavy chemical baths. The seat is upholstered with Savian by Bio-Fluff, a plant-based faux fur hand-dyed with natural pigments. The result is a piece that invites touch and sitting, reframing sustainability as desirable and unexpected.
"Sustainable design has a branding problem. Not an ethics problem, not a materials problem, but a branding problem. For years, the conversation around circular materials and responsible production has been wrapped in language that feels like a lecture. Worthy, yes. Exciting, rarely. So when a stool shows up at Alcova during Milan Design Week looking like a bouquet of pompoms crowning a cluster of dreamy pastel cylinders, it stops you mid-stride. That stool is the Alice Stool by Studio LoopLoop, and it's making a very quiet but very pointed argument."
"Founded in 2022 by Odin Visser and Charles Gateau, Studio LoopLoop is a Dutch practice that operates somewhere between science lab and design studio. Their approach is hands-on and deliberately self-sufficient, developing their own processes rather than outsourcing to industrial systems they'd rather move away from. For Alice, that methodology produced something that looks almost nothing like what we typically picture when someone says "sustainable furniture.""
"The base of the stool is made from 100% recycled aluminium, specifically Hydro 100R extrusions, and coloured using a plant-based anodising technique the studio developed in-house. The result is a range of subtle colour gradients that shift from soft sage to deep plum to warm yellow, achieved through controlled dyeing rather than chemical baths heavy with petrochemical inputs. The seat is upholstered with Savian by Bio-Fluff, a plant-based faux fur hand-dyed with NIG natural pigments. The combination is tactile in a way that feels almost irrational for a piece of furniture. You want to touch it. You probably want to sit on it and not get up."
Read at Yanko Design - Modern Industrial Design News
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