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    A light touch: Arper

A light touch: Arper

Arper’s latest launches Kata and Mixu work hard for their place in an increasingly conscientious world, delivering in terms of their environmental footprint as well as functionality and aesthetics.

Altherr Désile Park
Emma Moore

By Altherr Désile Park and Emma Moore

June 21, 2021 | 10:00 pm CUT

Kata has consideration for nature at its core. The novel 3D knit textile made from post-consumer polyester reduces production waste by 30-50 per cent. Texture and pattern also lessen the need for chemical dyes. Photo: Salva Lopez

Kata has consideration for nature at its core. The novel 3D knit textile made from post-consumer polyester reduces production waste by 30-50 per cent. Texture and pattern also lessen the need for chemical dyes. Photo: Salva Lopez

Sitting under the sustainability spotlight it has turned on itself, Arper is duty-bound to make its new releases work hard for their place in the world. And the two latest launches don’t disappoint in their endeavours to touch the ground lightly.
Kata, by Arper’s close collaborators, Barcelona-based Altherr Désile Park, carries the silhouette of a modernist lounge chair. The wood-framed chair, however, is very much an exercise in making furniture that we desire aesthetically with minimal environmental impact.
The Mixu chair is fully customisable, allowing you to define the mood of an interior via distinct colour and material combinations through the backrest, seat and legs. Photos: Alga Studio (top), Salva Lopez (above)

The Mixu chair is fully customisable, allowing you to define the mood of an interior via distinct colour and material combinations through the backrest, seat and legs. Photos: Alga Studio (top), Salva Lopez (above)

It is made from FSC certified oak and black locust – both durable hardwoods treated with water-based varnish – and a custom-knit textile made from post-consumer plastic that has been converted into a hard-wearing, lightweight fabric. This new-gen polyester wages war on waste; it turns 1 kg of PET waste into 1 kg of yarn, using considerably less energy than the making of virgin polyester, and is 3D knitted to fit the chair frame.
The Mixu chair and stool, designed in collaboration with Gensler, meanwhile, makes itself useful by virtue of the myriad customisable forms it can take. The seat, backrest and base colours and textures can be mixed, so that its visual impact can be tailored precisely and uniquely to needs. Seat options are available in post-industrial recycled plastic, FSC certified wood, fabric, or leather finishes and can be combined with backrest options in a plastic, fabric, or leather and four-leg bases in either metal or FSC certified wood.
Kata is Arper’s first solid wood lounge chair. It is both graphic and warm, and, with its natural tones, it is a design made to endure. Photo: Salva Lopez

Kata is Arper’s first solid wood lounge chair. It is both graphic and warm, and, with its natural tones, it is a design made to endure. Photo: Salva Lopez

The ease with which the parts disassemble and reassemble means it travels in an energy-efficient way and just like Kata, it can be laid to rest in a responsible way at the end of its life. One day, when all this is a given, we shall return simply to talking about how handsome and functional the designs are, but for now, the news is that these chairs are not only good-lookers, they are responsible too.
© Architonic

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