London studio Pearson Lloyd has designed a steel flat-pack chair, called Cross Chair Tube, for Danish furniture brand Takt.
Cross Chair Tube is an update on the original Cross Chair, which Pearson Lloyd created as Copenhagen start-up Takt's first product. Along with the steel chair the studio has designed a flat-pack wooden table for the Cross Collection.
Cross Chair takes its name from the cross structure, which was made of solid oak, that forms its four legs. For Takt's updated Cross Chair Tube, Pearson Lloyd replaced these oak elements with recycled tubular steel for the frame.
"We developed the Cross Chair Tube to share a visual language and assembly method with its predecessor, but incorporated recycled tubular steel – a less-expensive material than oak, allowing the chair to be sold at a lower price point," Pearson Lloyd co-founder Tom Lloyd told Dezeen.
The black powder-coated steel creates a material contrast against the plywood seat and backrest, and the design allows the chairs to be stacked as well as taken apart and flat-packed.
The Cross Chair Tube comes in three ply finishes and can be customised with Kvadrat wool fabrics and aniline leathers.
Another addition to the Cross collection is the Cross Table, a version of the classic Danish dining table made using the same design concept as for the chair.
It is made from a solid-oak frame with an oak-veneer plywood surface and available in one size, a square version that is 75 centimetres wide.
"The Cross Table began by determining the smallest square table that could comfortably seat four people, and fine-tuned the frame and legs so that the same parts could be used in larger versions," said Lloyd.
Like the rest of the Cross collection, the designs are easy to assemble straight out of the box, and made so that any part of the chair or table can be replaced and recycled. All wood comes from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
"Although our Takt furniture is designed for a long life, and includes a five year warranty, we considered afterlife too," Pearson Lloyd co-founder Luke Pearson told Dezeen.
"All the pieces have been awarded the EU Ecolabel, which vouches not only for the sustainability of the materials used, but also the lifetime environmental impact of the products."
All components have also been designed to pack into the smallest space possible to minimise CO2 emissions when shipping.
"We hope in the future this type of product, which does not ask users to compromise either aesthetics or ethics, will be both increasingly popular and readily available," said Pearson.
Other companies producing flat-pack furniture include London start-up Swyft, which launched a flat-pack sofa that can be assembled without tools, and Danish start-up Stylla, which introduced a cardboard desk for people working from home during self-isolation.