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Recycled-Plastic 'RCP2 Chair' in Blue & White by Jane Atfield
About the Item
This is the 2022 re-issue of British-designer Jane Atfield's historical, 'RCP2 Chair', an iconic example of sustainable design, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the piece, which was originally designed between 1990-1992. This series of re-editioned chairs honors the legacy of the first RCP2 Chair. Available in four colorways: a replica of Atfield and Stephen Yemm’s first collaborative prototype, a riotous rainbow of colors called 'Confetti'; a MADE OF WASTE edition in 'Blue'; and two new, never-before-produced options, a vibrant, solid 'Red', and a terrazzo-style 'Black and White'. The various iterations feature rich, carefully calibrated mixtures of tone and motif. The solid sheet material achieves a more pointillist appearance on its front but then reveals an almost visceral pulled-line pattern when cut through. Given the chair’s straightforward and honest assembly, this idiosyncratic detail is celebrated, making for an intriguing level of contrast and depth. Without hiding its materiality, the RCP2 simultaneously breathes new life into the plastics through vibrant, evocative hues. This duality—of both exposing waste while repurposing it—critiques the capitalist conditions that created mass waste as it offers up ways to rethink a better, sustainable way forward.
Jane Atfield was a pioneering designer who began working with recycled plastics, at a time when the impact of the world's abundance of plastic had yet to be understood. “In the ’90s, eco-design was somewhat marginalized and often seen as an eccentricity or a leftover from the hippy movement. At that time, the emphasis was on status and style-driven design, which I felt alienated from,” the designer explains.
Atfield's revolutionary work in sustainability and eco-conscious design began during her time studying furniture design at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. There, she came across a small sample of Missouri-based manufacturers Yemm & Hart’s recycled, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic board sheets. The sheets are created via compression molding, where molten flakes of recycled plastic are pressed into a panel via heat. Inspired by Gerrit Rietveld’s iconic 'Crate' chair, which had a boxy shape and used castaway materials, Atfield’s design featured clean lines and a simple silhouette that intentionally focused the eye on the material itself. Jane commissioned Yemm & Hart to produce a prototype, shown at her RCA graduation in 1992. The recycled plastic material was so vibrant that some viewers thought it was painted, flecked as it was with the colors of the bottles and the fragments of their labels and barcodes still recognizably contained within. After the RCP2 Chair’s successful debut, Atfield founded MADE OF WASTE, where she produced and designed new works from recycled plastic sheeting.
The RCP2 chair is suitable for indoor or outdoor placement, and it's lightweight, diminutive form makes it functional for multipurpose use. The chair can be screwed apart and stored flat, and can be shipped flat packed, with easy on-site assembly. Each chair features a stamp of authentication on the underside of the seat.
Though Atfield never made more than 60 copies of the chair, it was a groundbreaking contribution to the evolution of furniture design, and one that Atfield has been widely recognized for since: versions of the RCP2 are part of the permanent collections at the V&A Museum, the British Craft Council, the Vitra Museum and the Design Museum of London, and the chair has been included in volumes about design by such publishers as Taschen.
- Creator:Jane Atfield (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 31 in (78.74 cm)Width: 14 in (35.56 cm)Depth: 17 in (43.18 cm)Seat Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)
- Style:Post-Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:2022
- Production Type:New & Custom(Re-Edition)
- Estimated Production Time:Available Now
- Condition:
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU5176127934792
Jane Atfield
Jane Atfield (b. 1964) is a British furniture designer. Atfield’s pioneering work in sustainability and ecologically conscious design, began during her time studying furniture design at the Royal College of Art (RCA), where she came across a small sample of Missouri-based manufacturers Yemm and Hart’s recycled, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic board sheets, who produced the first chair. After debuting her first recycled plastic chair during her graduation show at the RCA in 1992, Atfield developed MADE OF WASTE, an agency for recycled materials, where she explored new ways to incorporate recycled materials within her design process. After studying architecture at the Polytechnic of Central London, Atfield went on to earn her MA in Furniture Design and Production from the Royal College of Art. Atfield’s work is part of the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Design Museum London, and the British Crafts Council.
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- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
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