Broadway Malyan is an award-winning international architecture, urbanism and design practice with 16 design studios around the world. Since 1958, the company has grown from a small partnership to a global firm. To celebrate its 60th Anniversary, Broadway Malyan created a global, sustainability-driven challenge called “Project Plastic”. To celebrate creativity, diversity, and collaboration, they asked their staff to team up with their colleagues and design and build a recyclable plastic seat in just 2.5 hours.
Gemma Allman, director of Decca London, was appointed as an external judge to select the winning product. Watch the below video to find out more about her favourite entries.
As a furniture expert, Gemma was looking for a clever combination of form and function. All chairs had to be usable so the aesthetics weren’t the only goal; the load-bearing capacity was also a key criterion.
After reviewing all 40 entries of the Project Plastic challenge, Gemma selected the winning chair designed by a Madrid-based team of four creative colleagues.
The winning product designed by Team 3 from Madrid
Weybridge Studio’s minimalistic yet very comfortable 'Bin Bean Bag' pouf chair earned second place.
'Bin Bean Bag' designed by the Weybridge team
All seats had to include clear references to the local context, which resulted in unique solutions including Dragon horns made out of stacked yoghurt pots. Their unique approach to the "Project Plastic" challenge earned the Shanghai's Team 2 the third place.
The plastic dragon designed by Shanghai Team 2 shows a strong reference to the Chinese culture
All chairs were a triumph of creativity, featuring a range of colours and textures offered by the huge amount of plastic items we dispose of on a daily basis. Below are some more examples of our favourite designs.
London team 7 designed their chair in a shape of a panda with a clear reference to conservation
Warsaw Team's presented their product in a relaxing way with drinks and books
Shanghai Team 1 designed a beautiful star-shaped chair that could be divided into 5 separate stools
The Lisbon team designed a comfortable chair with back support and arms
Manchester Team designed a very colourful chair called 'Busy Bees'
Broadway Malyan’s director David Whitehead helped scope the brief of the “Project Plastic” challenge. He said: “Project Plastic has been a great way to celebrate creativity across our studios and bring our colleagues together. It made everyone reflect on the amount of plastic we use every day and find inventive ways to approach this modern day problem. I think it was a great way to celebrate Broadway Malyan’s achievements over the past 60 years while looking to the future and the challenges ahead. Sustainable solutions that have an aesthetic value and respond to society’s needs, while limiting our impact on the environment will be key for years to come.”
We'd like to thank the team at Broadway Malyan for choosing us to take part in the "Project Plastic" challenge. We thoroughly enjoyed the process and wish you at least another 60 prosperous years!
Find out more about
