This mod armchair shares design DNA with London’s iconic red buses
For over 30 years, Turkish manufacturer Polkima has been producing molded composite parts for the automotive industry. If you’re unfamiliar with molded composites, picture the interior of London’s iconic red bus: The arched wall wrapped around the driver’s booth, the curved staircase, and even the base for the seats were all made in Polkima’s factory in Izmir, Turkey.
But why should those sleek curves be reserved for public transport? Polkima’s latest venture is Uma, the furniture label behind an eye-popping collection produced in the same factory, using the same process that produces the interiors of London’s buses. London-based architecture firm Holloway Li collaborated with Uma to design the modular collection, called T4. Inspired by ’90s decor like lava lamps and inflatable chairs, the armchairs, which can be combined to create various combinations from single seats to corner sofas, boast a curvilinear fiberglass base and a shapely upholstered seat that fits equally well in the lobby of a hotel or your living room. It’s a remarkable collection, and a testament to what happens when designers think outside the box—or in this case, outside your typical furniture factory.
The seeds for T4 were planted about five years ago, when Holloway Li was looking for an innovative solution to producing a sofa that looks like concrete but is lightweight. They found their way to Polkima’s molded composites. The two firms have since designed bespoke benches and decorative panels using the same composite process. “We work a lot with very complex, compound curvature,” says Alex Holloway, an architect and one half of Holloway Li. “It fits in with our style to make complicated geometries you wouldn’t be able to make out of metal or timber.”
The new furniture collection’s curvilinear shape is the result of a multistep manufacturing process. First, a design pattern is laser-cut at the Polkima factory. The surface of the mold is sprayed with a durable gelcoat (that smooth, hard coating often associated with fiberglass), before laying the fiberglass and resin in a closed mold. After curing for half a day, artisans remove the piece of furniture from the mold and polish it to a smooth shine. The upholstery, which is crafted by another local manufacturer, is assembled on-site, using simple screws.
The crucial component here is the mold, which forms the basis for every single future reproduction of the seat. This allows production to quickly and easily scale, with quality control that only has to happen once. “There’s a lot of development that goes into making and designing the piece, but once you’re done, repetition can be quick,” says Holloway.
The first chair took around three weeks to produce, but subsequent chairs can be made in just two days (minus the upholstering). This has big implications for improving manufacturing lead times, which in recent years have been bottlenecked due to supply chain issues. For big, big orders, like say, 50 hotel armchairs, lead times that usually take 10 to 12 weeks are cut down to 4 to 6 weeks, says Holloway. (A one-off order for a private client would take about four weeks.)
Ultimately, the possibilities for molded composites are endless. The material is so durable and easy to clean that it could be used in environments where hygiene is key. Outdoor furniture could work equally well. Next up, the designers are working on a modular shower pod design that can be entirely molded off-site and installed much faster. “It’s a scalability thing,” says Holloway. “Once the mold is done, it solves that problem.”
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