Three design students from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have created a chair that is primarily used for cultivating plant life.

Alice Hultqvist, Emelie Sjöberg and Linnea Nilsson created the Chia-Chair on the basis that it should accommodate nature first and humans second.

Instead of traditional cushions or upholstery, the chair's seat and backrest is a knitted, knotted tube that serves as a planting bed for chia seeds.

"The plant is the primary user of Chia-Chair and humans are only temporary visitors," said the trio.

"The seating furniture becomes its own entity that not only assumes but demands respect from the user."

Hultqvist, Sjöberg and Nilsson are all students on the MA Design programme at HDK-Valand, the University of Gothenburg's art and design academy.

They created Chia-Chair for the exhibition Making Transparency, an exploration into posthumanist design, which was presented in Stockholm Furniture Fair's student-focused Greenhouse section.

The designers planted seeds in the chair in the days running up to the fair, so visitors could observe the shoots growing across the duration of the exhibition.

The designers came up with the concept after thinking about the negative impact that we as humans have had on the planet, but prioritising our own needs before anything else.

"Over the past century, humanity has exerted control over natural resources and non-human life forms," they told Dezeen.

"Our needs have been met at the expense of nature and wildlife, and we are now faced with the consequences of that," they continued.

"In this project, we aimed to address the imbalance by prioritising the plant as a user and creating a piece that demanded something in return."

The Chia-Chair has an ash wood frame, while the cushion is a wool sock filled with polyester stuffing.

The chia seeds were mixed with water before being planted inside. The designers watered them twice a day and placed a plastic cover on the chair overnight to retain the moisture.

The designers intended the design as a statement rather than a functional piece, although they do believe that greenery will become more prevalent in our homes and workplaces in the future.

"As urbanisation continues to limit living spaces and disconnect people from nature, it would only be natural for our desire to incorporate elements of nature into our homes and furniture to grow in the future," they added.

Other highlights from Stockholm Furniture Fair included a chair designed in virtual reality and a waterless toilet.

Greenhouse formed part of the Stockholm Furniture Fair, which was open to the public from 7 to 11 February 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.