Furniture designer Rene Olivier has come up with a range of fabulously comfortable furniture by taking unwanted lorry and car tires and turning them into quirky seating options. Olivier, who was recently named student furniture designer of the year at the Mixology Awards, designed the pieces for her master’s qualification as part of a project investigating movement and response.
The collection, which was on display at DesignJunction during the London Design Festival, comprises three pieces. First is ‘Tyred’, a pair of interlinked lorry tires “designed to allow a variety of sitting and relaxing positions”. Although the size and dimensions of this option mean it is not well suited to indoor use, Tyred’s weather-resistant properties and capacity for use by more than one person make it a great option for outdoor use in public spaces.
The second piece is ‘Flower Tread’ – a straddle seat fashioned from a single car tire fitted with a loose fabric cover. Flower Tread comes closest to one of the earlier prototypes which saw Olivier cut a tyre in half and fit a seating bar across the diameter to create a kind of rocking horse-esque arrangement. The last design is Rock & Roll – a piece comprising a lorry tire, a detachable metal frame and a cushion, which come together to create a playful rocking seat.
Instead of negating the recycling element by adding the environmental cost of long distance shipping and packaging, Olivier has decided to encourage customers to source discarded auto parts from their local area. “The frame is cleverly designed for users to find their own discarded tire and customize it into seating. This in turn acts as a comment about the absurdity of shipping large pieces of furniture around the world when there are many locally sourced components which can be utilised.”
Olivier’s Tire Furniture Collection is currently on display at the KI showroom in London.
+ Rene Oliver
