Social Awareness + Environmentally Friendly Design

Last week I featured Studio Ubico founded by Ori Ben Zvi who creates furniture series out of recycled materials with a very fresh look. Ori uses reclaimed wood, mimicking ready made objects. Yesterday morning I got an email from Ori that a fresh design has come out and I simply had to share it with you.

This new line is called “Stortz” which apparently means “stump” in German. I couldn’t find anything on it on the net, it may be an old German word. Ori tells me that almost all the words to do with carpentry in Israel are in German since the very first carpenters in Israel were originally from Germany.

This fresh new design is a stool which doubles as a side table. It is made of cut offs and stumps which can be found in masses outside carpenters’ workshops in the area where Studio Ubico is situated (Florentine).

These stumps are then glued together, redesigned and polished off to create this fantastic looking stool or side table. An amazing thing about Studio Ubico’s new line is that not only 100% environmentally friendly, it also brings the aspect of social awareness. The stool-come-side table is manufactured in a factory which employs disabled people.

This one is called “Dodo” (don’t know why, maybe it has something to do with the bird that is extinct).

I really like that the legs are not all the same.

This one is called “Oli”.

Close up on “Oli”…

The steel band around the stool, implemented as a design element, is taken from bands that bind the logs of wood before it is first used by carpenters.

Well done Ori and Ubico Studio on another beautiful and ideological design.