Sustainable Hemp Chair
Designboom is showing a Hemp Chair made from hemp fabric and a pineapple‑leaf fiber composite that will appear in the 'No Space for Waste' exhibition at the Isola Design Festival (designboom.com). Separately, '0‑99. The Design of Play' runs April 10–May 10 as a quieter, play‑focused show option for visitors wanting a less congested Milan stop (gamescenes.org).
A hemp-and-pineapple-fiber chair is headed to Milan Design Week, where designer Veronica Olariu is using plant materials and visible tension instead of a hidden frame. (designboom.com) Designboom reported the project as a seating prototype developed in Thailand by Olariu, with two curved shells that support upright and reclined positions through counterbalance and tension. Olariu’s own project page describes it as a “tensile structure” made from plant fiber, with no separate internal skeleton doing the work. (designboom.com) (veronicaolariu.com) The material mix matters because both fibers come from plants: hemp fabric forms part of the structure, while pineapple-leaf fiber is used in a composite shell. Designboom said the shells are made with resin transfer molding, a closed-mold process used to wet fibers evenly and cut excess waste. (designboom.com) The chair is scheduled to appear in “No Space for Waste,” one of the curated shows in the Isola Design Festival during Milan Design Week. Isola’s event listing says the exhibition focuses on designs made from discarded or lower-impact materials, and festival guides list it in the 2026 program. (isola.design) (fuorisalone.it) This year’s Isola Design Festival runs from April 20 to April 26, 2026, as the district marks its tenth edition under the theme “TEN: The Evolving Now.” Preview coverage says the festival is framing material research, circular production, and emerging designers as central parts of its program. (iconeye.com) (archiportale.com) Olariu’s project also fits a broader design-week pattern: furniture is being presented less as a fixed object and more as a test of how materials behave under load. Her site says the chair was developed through prototyping in northern Thailand with local engineers and workshops, and a separate project site says the process involved repeated testing and failure. (veronicaolariu.com) (thehempchair.com) For visitors trying to avoid the busiest fair circuit, another April show is taking a different route. “0-99. Design per gioco” opened on April 10 and runs through May 10 at Palazzo Arese Borromeo in Cesano Maderno, outside central Milan, with board games treated as design objects and social tools. (gamescenes.org) (fuorisalone.it) That exhibition is promoted by the Comune di Cesano Maderno, and coverage describes it as a quieter stop during Milano Design Week’s crowded calendar. Together, the two shows point to the same April mood in and around Milan: lower-waste materials in one venue, slower and more reflective design viewing in another. (gamescenes.org) (milanoartemagazine.it)
