My mission is to explore the use of natural regenerative fibres as furniture fillings in place of petro-chemicals and apply these to modern soft furniture builds.

 

Foam as an upholstery filling is problematic. As a petro-chemical it can take hundreds of years to biodegrade. As an inherently flammable material it requires treatment with flame retardant chemicals to pass UK furniture fire safety legislation. This treatment is recognised by DEFRA to be toxic and persistent and as such furniture foam is not currently recyclable.

​

I work combining different natural fibres and recognising each of their inherent properties whether that be softness, bounce, firmness, resilience, flame retardancy or longevity.  The furniture build is designed to be either used again or biodegrade.

​

I am interested to work in collaboration with furniture designers and manufacturers to explore natural fibre filling solutions to upholstery and to organise the fire testing of composite filling solutions.

 

Sofas and soft furniture can be built to both respect fire safety and respect our environment. By a process of carefully combining natural fibre fillings then fire testing the combinations, comfort, longevity aethetics and fire safety may all be achieved.