Bella Froebel

Superstyle Tubular Chair, 2023

Mixed media, recycled materials, wood, plastic, fibres

Bella Froebel is an object designer and maker, living and working in Naam, Melbourne. Their work orbits around reusing materials with a focus in recycled plastics.

Superstyle Tubular Chair is a project that seeks to close the gap between the industrial plastic medium and a playful craftsperson’s approach to making. Using modular pieces of plastic, nearly any recycled chair frame can be aesthetically and functionally refurbished. The design project relates to UN SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities as it uses post-consumer recycled plastics and hard rubbish to create the chairs. The system by which these chairs are created is situated in Brunswick, Victoria and uses the waste from local cafes (Code Black, Cirelli & Co, Smug Relish) to source the necessary HDPE plastic (found in milk bottles).

The local streets of Melbourne are also used to find the chair frames, as many are discarded in hard rubbish collections or simply found on the side of the road. The furniture serves as a precedent for fellow makers as to what can be achieved in making with plastic. The chairs themselves can be sold, either back to the cafes (as a testament to the circularity of their waste) or to sustainably conscious third parties. Repairing discarded furniture with recycled plastic is, in essence, what this project seeks to achieve. Everything you need to create something is in someone’s bin, and I intend to prove it.