Mater has just launched the Ocean Collection - a new table and chair collection that reimagines an original 1955 design by renowned 20th-century designers, Jørgen and Nanna Ditzel. In a nod to its materiality, the Collection is largely made from ocean plastic waste. Jørgen and Nanna Ditzel themselves used organic and innovative materials for their product designs, and with this new collection Mater seeks to continue their inventive approach to design.
Dennie Ditzel, Nanna and Jørgen Ditzel's daughter, has been overseeing the Ditzel archive since Nanna's death in 2005. On the collaboration, she said her mother "was fascinated by new materials and always experimenting with them, so this would just be ideal for her - this new iteration is very much in her spirit."
A new innovative business model motivates fishermen across the world to dispose of their discarded fishing nets to the only recycling plant for fishing nets in the world, located in Denmark. Mater searched for a design that could fit this pioneering sustainable production method and partnered with Dennie Ditzel. Together they searched the archives for a design that could work using ocean plastic waste. The result was the Ocean Collection.
The Ocean Collection is characterised by its light structure with repeated slats and metal frames, made and tested for outdoor use. The collection represents sustainable and innovative thinking and honours the United Nations Global Goals of sustainable development, pushing the design industry towards a greener agenda. One single Ocean chair uses 960g of ocean plastic waste.
The Ocean Collection is designed for disassembly, meaning that the design allows each component in its purest form to be recycled into new production circles when it comes to the end of its useful life.
The original design from 1955 was made up of a steel frame and timber veneer. The reissues of the pieces have been scaled up by 5% to accommodate modern proportions, but otherwise the form remains the same. The table and chair's simple shape and lightness epitomise the Ditzel's precise, practical and playful design sensibility, and are perfectly suited to the use of ocean plastic.
Photos: Courtesy of Mater