unito

Type | Furniture Design    Year | 2021    Project site | Delft, Netherlands

Client | TU/Delft Graduation Project, Best Graduation Award

Unito is a modular system that stores CO2 in its materials. The system consists of blocks of bioplastic made from atmospheric carbon; 1 kg carbon per block. The system was used to produce a hefty 42 kg chair that is designed to last forever. The chair is reconfigurable and adaptable and will remain relevant for centuries to come, ensuring long-term carbon storage in the built environment. The Unito chair is part of an approach to production that could be scaled across many different industries and sectors of society. Unito explores the concept of carbon dioxide utilization, where CO2 is used as a feedstock to produce materials. By using these materials in products, the act of production leads to removal of CO2 from the atmosphere and its storage inside the built environment. The economic reality of production and consumption of products is thus harnessed to tackle climate change. With this approach, the Technosphere becomes transformed into an artificial carbon sink. The process of burning fossil fuels is reversed.

Products designed for the artificial carbon sink must look and act differently than what we are used to. Since material stores CO2, products designed for the carbon sink favor mass over lightness. Timespan of products also must change. We will need to reformat design towards objects that last centuries, even millennia. This is achieved in two ways. First, the base units of the system are massive durable blocks that are meant to last centuries. Second, these blocks can be continuously adapted and reconfigured to create different objects.