Beyond plastic: What would future furniture materials need?

Exploring alternative materials is easy to talk about. Deciding which ones deserve serious attention? That’s a whole other story... In our previous article, we discussed why material development should look beyond improving existing plastic systems. But once you make that step, how do you decide what you should actually look at?

In collaboration with the Bioregion Institute, we reviewed a wide landscape of bio-based and biodegradable materials. Not to find a quick substitute for plastic, but to understand which materials, along with their lifecycles, might realistically stand up to heavy demands of industrial furniture production.

We started with a practical question: does such a material exist in meaningful volumes?

Fortunately, when you scratch the surface, there are so many as yet untapped waste streams that could be utilised. Agricultural byproducts such as oat husks, for example, are produced in large and growing quantities, and largely disposed of as waste. Discarded shells from mussels and oysters also represents a substantial, underused stream. Materials that already exist at scale are fundamentally different from those that rely on small or uncertain supply.

Birgitta Ralston, Co-Founder of Bioregion Institute: "When biobased materials are scaled in industrial production, it becomes in reality part of a regenerative value-chain that is designed to put sidestreams in use, making products that connect us and give back to nature. "

Below - two examples of how BioRegion Institute & Flokk assessed the validity of potential waste sources as future raw materials for furniture production.

Scalability is vital when it comes to long-term production, but how a material behaves - and how it looks - is just as important. With new material compositions, even small changes in mixing, binding or pressing can produce noticeably different results. Testing these combinations can feel like working with a blank canvas. It takes time, patience and a willingness to explore.

Aesthetics quickly becomes part of the conversation. If a material is to become a genuine alternative, it must also be desirable. What kind of expression can it achieve? Is the finish coarse, smooth, warm, irregular? Could it appeal beyond a small group of enthusiasts?

Marianne Sælid, Flokk VP Design Management: "Working with biological materials challenges traditional ideas of quality and perfection. Variation can be a strength adding character and narrative, but it must be balanced with a versatility that allows the material to work across a wide range of interiors."

And with that comes the idea of consistency. Biological materials will not produce identical surfaces every time. Variation in colour and texture is part of their nature. The real question is whether performance remains reliable even when appearance varies.

While this phase did not lead to any final material decisions, it moved the conversation from theory to something tangible. Mapping materials and beginning to explore their composition has already reshaped how we think about what furniture materials could become.