Furniture

Plastic Whale has been scooping plastic trash from Amsterdam's canals for a number of years, and transforming it into boats to collect even more plastic. The company has now found another use for this floating environmental nightmare – office furniture.​

​There's no shortage of design students turning out crappy furniture, but Sanelisiwe Mafa is making furniture from crap. And we're not talking repurposing old junk here, the Product Design Student from Birmingham City University has literally used crap as a material – cow manure to be precise.

A team of five mechanical engineering seniors from Rice University, in Houston, Texas, has been tasked by NASA to design furniture suitable for use in future habitats on Mars, the Moon, or in space itself.

Want the exercise, but can't conjure up the energy to go to the gym? Have a seat ... and "turn downtime into exercise time." The TAO Chair, which we took a look at at CES last week, is designed to provide a dynamic workout for your primary target zones from the comfort of your living room.

We've kept a pretty keen eye on the standing desk movement here at Gizmag. The team behind MisterBrightLight is the latest to take a stand on the stubborn nature of standard office furniture, launching a smart desk whose height can be adjusted by hand gestures when you've been seated for too long.

Nearly 20 percent of home fire deaths between 2006 and 2010 occurred in fires where upholstered furniture was the first item to ignite. With that in mind, scientists have used carbon nanotubes to create a coating for furniture foam, that reduces its flammability by 35 percent.

"It became readily apparent that many of the problems my patients were experiencing had been created by the lack of a suitable chair," says Simon Freedman. So he built one. The result, after a claimed 15 years in development, is the FreedMan Chair.

The NOHrD WaterGrinder is an ornate, sailing-like fitness equipment designed to look good while keeping you looking good.

Melbourne RMIT Bachelor of Design graduate, Michelle McDonell has come up with an innovative way to recycle old clothing into DIY furniture pieces.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany have developed an armchair designed to give the elderly health and fitness advice ... and a workout.

Belgian designer Jens Praet has recycled 64 kg (140 lb) of Elle Magazines into furniture for the home.

CalmSpace is a sleep capsule designed for Haworth by Marie-Virginie Berbet for office workers to enjoy power naps in a comfortable environment.