With furniture that looks like a jigsaw, designer Aakriti Kumar’s Tessellate collection weaves in sustainability and zero waste
For a designer who practises sustainability and zero waste (whenever possible), leftover material can be quite the irritant. When the pile of waste wood at her studio, discarded from earlier projects, crossed a tonne, Aakriti Kumar - founder of Differniture, the Gurgaon-based sustainable design furniture atelier established in late 2015 - decided to get creative with it.
Instead of working from a blueprint, she started at the “molecular” level. “Since the pieces are really small, I wanted to keep that component. We built up the tiny bits, much like a jigsaw puzzle, into larger, more complex patterns,” says Kumar, who débuted a few initial experiments at the India Design ID in New Delhi a little over a month ago. Since then she has added another 25 designs, mostly tables and counters, to the collection she has named Tessellate (patterns created by the repeated use of a single shape). “They are limited-edition pieces, and we have already used up more than half of the scrap pile,” she happily adds.
Putting pieces together
For the Parsons School of Design graduate, this promises to be a never-ending story — after all, woodworking and prototyping mean there will always be at least a minimal amount of waste. “Currently, I am working to see how the pieces, without any cutting, can be brought together, fusing different sizes, shapes and grains into a homogeneous whole,” says the 28-year-old, whose cradle-to-cradle ethos recently got her a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list.
She is also experimenting a lot more with chairs. “For Tessellate, I designed a chaise using a wooden upholstery technique I created — using small triangles with spaces in between, upholstered on with foam. When you sit, the spaces converge, giving you a cushioning effect. It is really fun to watch people sit on it and see the apprehension on their faces turn to pleasure,” she shares. Her latest chair is inspired by a visit to the Corbett National Park. “I am fascinated by parasite trees. So I’m designing a basic silhouette of a chair and looking at having something ‘grow’ for the back.”
Cabin in the woods
When she is not working at her studio in Sainik Farms, she is building a wood bank. Since all her furniture is made with reclaimed wood, that means scouring lots for shipping containers, auctions of old houses, and even various neighbourhoods for fallen trees. “I’ve literally had neighbours calling me up to tell me of trees that have blown over,” laughs Kumar, whose bank now has over 10 tonnes of wood, from sheesham and teak to acacia and mulberry. “It’s also a learning experience. Sometimes I work with woods I have no idea about, like the kusum or Ceylon oak, only for them to turn out to be diamonds in the rough.” Her team of five carpenters also help her in figuring out what works best.
The city girl, who loves escaping to the mountains, is now segueing into eco-friendly cabins in the Uttarakhand mountains. “Most hill homes look like Delhi homes, with marble and tiles, which is a tragedy. I’m developing cabins with my design aesthetic and sustainable processes — like using shou sugi ban, the Japanese wood firing technique, to make bathroom floors waterproof.” And, as she plants a tree for every product she sells, she is helping add to the forest, too.
Instead of working from a blueprint, she started at the “molecular” level. “Since the pieces are really small, I wanted to keep that component. We built up the tiny bits, much like a jigsaw puzzle, into larger, more complex patterns,” says Kumar, who débuted a few initial experiments at the India Design ID in New Delhi a little over a month ago. Since then she has added another 25 designs, mostly tables and counters, to the collection she has named Tessellate (patterns created by the repeated use of a single shape). “They are limited-edition pieces, and we have already used up more than half of the scrap pile,” she happily adds.
Putting pieces together
For the Parsons School of Design graduate, this promises to be a never-ending story — after all, woodworking and prototyping mean there will always be at least a minimal amount of waste. “Currently, I am working to see how the pieces, without any cutting, can be brought together, fusing different sizes, shapes and grains into a homogeneous whole,” says the 28-year-old, whose cradle-to-cradle ethos recently got her a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list.
She is also experimenting a lot more with chairs. “For Tessellate, I designed a chaise using a wooden upholstery technique I created — using small triangles with spaces in between, upholstered on with foam. When you sit, the spaces converge, giving you a cushioning effect. It is really fun to watch people sit on it and see the apprehension on their faces turn to pleasure,” she shares. Her latest chair is inspired by a visit to the Corbett National Park. “I am fascinated by parasite trees. So I’m designing a basic silhouette of a chair and looking at having something ‘grow’ for the back.”
Cabin in the woods
When she is not working at her studio in Sainik Farms, she is building a wood bank. Since all her furniture is made with reclaimed wood, that means scouring lots for shipping containers, auctions of old houses, and even various neighbourhoods for fallen trees. “I’ve literally had neighbours calling me up to tell me of trees that have blown over,” laughs Kumar, whose bank now has over 10 tonnes of wood, from sheesham and teak to acacia and mulberry. “It’s also a learning experience. Sometimes I work with woods I have no idea about, like the kusum or Ceylon oak, only for them to turn out to be diamonds in the rough.” Her team of five carpenters also help her in figuring out what works best.
The city girl, who loves escaping to the mountains, is now segueing into eco-friendly cabins in the Uttarakhand mountains. “Most hill homes look like Delhi homes, with marble and tiles, which is a tragedy. I’m developing cabins with my design aesthetic and sustainable processes — like using shou sugi ban, the Japanese wood firing technique, to make bathroom floors waterproof.” And, as she plants a tree for every product she sells, she is helping add to the forest, too.