While many of us have been baking bread and bingeing Netflix shows during quarantine, Eimear Ryan, founder of Argot Studio, has been using the time to research groundbreaking sustainable materials for her designs.
Eimear, an Irish-born interior and furniture designer, founded Argot in 2018. Now Paris-based, she collaborates with artisans and makers around the world. “Since the beginning, we’ve had a focus on sustainability, whether that be the choice of wood we use or the 3D printing material,” she says. Argot Studio is best known for its sculptural vases—popular on Instagram with a set of internationally informed creatives—which are made on 3D printers using biodegradable biomass derived from corn. “However,” she says, “I do feel that confinement has given us the push to really develop the 10 Chair Project.”
The 10 Chair Project, which is currently in the research phase, is Eimear’s way of experimenting with new sustainable materials. Her modern chair designs, which are digitally rendered, serve as vessels through which to showcase the unique materials—highlighting their functionality, adaptability, and overall beauty. With the project, her hope is to “bring awareness to the vast array of sustainable materials out there.”
Eimear has been sharing updates and visuals from the project on Argot’s Instagram feed. And through social media, she has been able to connect with even more material developers looking to collaborate. “Thanks to Instagram, the research continues to find us,” she shares. “After posting the first few chair designs, people got in touch, introducing us to materials we hadn’t previously found through our initial search.”
With many active client projects postponed due to the pandemic, Eimear was afforded the unexpected luxury of time to devote to sustainability research. “It’s been a time to reflect on what we’re doing as a company,” she says. “The only future I see for design is a sustainable one. This lockdown has given us the freedom to explore how we can do that in new and creative ways.”