Project Title: LikeMindedObjects Made to Dissappear Collection
The Designer: Elise McMahon from LikeMindedObjects design studio
Concept: With the majority of upholstered furniture utilizing petroleum and flame retardant-based foams, we are thrilled to find any material that can be a healthier alternative as a seating inner material. Ecovative’s mycelium foams are the most exciting option today as it is fully compostable with no problems passed on to the earth after use. We were also amazed at the tactile and visual language of the range of Ecovative’s materials we included elsewhere in the collection, the sliced foam naturally translated into amber-like glowing lighting and speckled mycelium leather for top fabrics.
Process: We patchworked the thinly sliced foam pieces into a sheet material to be assembled around a metal lamp frame made in-house. This resulted in a range of visual textures glowing from the sheets. For the channel tufted seat, we utilized one of our favorite other materials, industrial paper tubing, as the structure and then shredded chunks of MycoFlex foam to create a mass of small foam pieces to stuff within the channel tufting, this creates a very comfortable cushion slung over the form.
For the mycelium leather-covered piece, we created an oak wood and industrial paper tubing inner structure, and layered the seat with the Grow.bio’s GIY material, then layered with 2” mycelium foam under the top alt-leather surface, it’s quite comfortable and efficient.
About the Designer: Elise McMahon is a designer, artist, researcher and educator. Living in New York’s Hudson Valley, she established the furniture & product design studio LikeMindedObjects in 2012 and has since gained a reputation for playful work which asks hard questions about our industrial systems, primarily focusing on waste and natural healthier materials as inputs and conversation points. McMahon has been featured in press such as Vogue, Architectural Digest & New York Times, teaches at Parsons School of Design & has been a guest lecturer/critic at institutions such as Rhode Island School of Design, Cranbrook and Pratt.