When I attended Dwell on Design last month in downtown Los Angeles, I did something you probably wouldn’t expect a blogger to do on the floor of the West Coast’s biggest modern home design show. I sat. And I sat a lot. Sure, I sat in on a couple of excellent panels on topics like the future of prefab building (I missed William McDonough’s keynote and trade show staple Ed Begley Jr.’s talk, sadly) but I also "tested out" a tons of seats of the non-folding chair variety. 

 

From Plywood Office’s Hammy hammock stand/planter/bench to Jory Brigham’s Comfortable Silence planter/bench to EIS Studio’s playful layered plywood pebble seats, it wasn’t entirely too difficult to locate an eye-catching indoor/outdoor seat worth hunkering down on for a few, especially around the Modern Living Showhouse.

 

Although it wasn't the most comfortable-feeling or looking of the numerous seating arrangements on display at Dwell on Design, my favorite, in terms of aesthetics and innovative use of materials, was Trash Cube from Greenform, the fabulous Santa Monica-based purveyor of artisan-crafted architectural planters and outdoor furnishings and accessories. All Greenform products are made in the Swiss towns of Niederurnen and Payerne from 100 percent recyclable fiber cement — a mixture of cement, limestone powder, water, and cellulose and synthetic fibers).

 

The creation of Swiss industrial designer Nicholas Le Moigne, each versatile and totally unique Trash Cube is made from the leftover fiber cement used to manufacture roofing tiles and other Greenform products. The process is simple: the scrap cement is rounded up and instead of discarded, put into a mold to dry, and then removed. The result? A compact (measuring 12 x 12 x 14 inches) but substantial (they each weigh 100 pounds) stool for your patio or garden that’s won’t rust, fade, or catch on fire. The cost? About $210, not too shabby for a durable, handmade-in-Switzerland stool made from recycled waste materials.