With the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York coming up I’m in the process of shortlisting my favorite green designers to make sure I stop by. On top of my list is award-winning Filipino designer Kenneth Cobonpue. I love how effortlessly he combines traditional Eastern craftsmanship with modern Western design. His incredibly poetic yet modern pieces of furniture seem to have a soul.
Kenneth Cobonpue uses sustainable resources like bamboo, rattan and abaca and turns them into sculpture like designs with his team of highly skilled basket weavers in the Philippines.
They masterfully weave rattan into patterns inspired by ship designs like in the Lolah collection. It’s made out of rattan poles and strips that are fastened together with nails and nylon wire in a technique similar to boatbuilding. The results are stunning flowing shapes that make you want to spend all day in there. Or they simply arrange Rattan in the most compelling way in the Chiquita stool where 350 pieces of natural rattan poles sit on top of a polyurethane cushion inside a molded steel base. You can use them as small side tables or stools. One of my favorite green architects Michelle Kaufman started integrating Kenneth Cobonpue’s furniture into some of her houses. It doesn’t get better than that. She also launched her new book “prefab green” this year, which seems like the perfect companion while lounging in green style.
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