Richard by Michael

Michael by Richard Richard Chair Introduction 02 By Michael Young From bottle to chair 06 The Richard chair 08 Q&A with Michael Young 14

Michael Stool Introduction 18 By Richard Hutten From forest to stool 20 Q&A with Richard Hutten 24 The Michael stool 28 Movement on the Ground 34 Introducing If ever there was a time to launch Richard by Michael products fit for a circular economy -that time is now. & Enter Richard and Michael, two Michael by Richard sustainable new seating ranges that embrace regenerative design by old friends Richard Hutten and Michael Young. Richard by Michael Sustainably created from recycled materials, the Richard chair is one more step towards a circular economy.

Made using over 100 Named after his good friend and recycled plastic bottles, fellow designer Richard Hutten, renowned for his anti-plastic stance, Michael Young’s new Michael Young’s Richard chair takes Richard chair is nibbling a life cycle approach to design, avoiding virgin plastic and instead away at the mountain opting for a shell made from only of plastic waste we have 100% recycled material. to climb. An ergonomically contoured seat fits neatly onto a tubular steel frame, forming a bold profile that remains light and compact. Practical simplicity and elegant curves come together to make Richard a chair that is refined, durable, 100% recyclable and fit for a better future. 04 05

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From bottle to chair

It takes just over 100 bottles to make the seat of each Richard chair. Bottles are sorted, washed and flaked before being extruded into fine strands that are layered to create sheets of PET felt. Pressed in the mould to form the chair shell, the felt is then water jet cut to create a perfect edge. Making best use of innovative technology, the Richard chair reclaims value from a problematic waste stream, helping keep plastic pollution out of land and sea. 08 09 10 11

‘We need to ‘harvest’ the planet, we can’t claim to be 100% pure but if we make a little bit of effort, year by year we can claim back material and clean up the damage that we have done’ Michael Young

Available in soft grey or charcoal felt, Richard’s frame has a powder coat finish in a muted palette of natural colours. Neatly stacking up to five high, 12 the Richard chair is perfect for environments that demand practical, comfortable seating that can be rearranged with ease. 13 14

Michael Young talks to us about his new Richard chair, his Brit Pop beginnings and gardening with cobras. 15 Which is better and why, your Richard chair or Richard’s Michael stool? They are both great designs, pure and simple, commercial no-nonsense with unique integrity that comes through, the materiality and engineering of it, great global team work and straight to the point. I’ve really enjoyed these projects and working with Modus, Richard always delivers a great stool.

Your Richard chair is made using 100% post-consumer plastic, do you think it is practicable to avoid virgin plastic? I think the best word we can use for this is, ‘harvest’, we need to harvest the planet, we can’t claim to be 100% pure but if you make a little bit of effort, year by year we can claim back material and clean up the damage that we have done. This is going to be a long process. I am guilty of using a lot of plastic without understanding its impact but now I am in a position to tidy up my patch with partners in design.

As the number of new consumers booms into billions, how can we guard against over consumption and live within planetary boundaries? I think we need to do exactly what we have done with the Richard chair, which is to be conscious about materials and how we use them. Design has become such a ubiquitous word that labels any thing in the home now. Good or bad design is not the point, they have always co-existed and the fact that bad design often sells as much, if not more than good design, is positive if it cleans up the planet. Being pragmatic is painfully important.

You have talked about opening up your own ecommerce site and manufacturing your own product, bypassing design brands, why? At the end of the day, it’s a brave move to manufacture anything, it’s really hard work but I’ve been in the business for so long that I have all the connections to do it and this is the way people are buying things. I think it’s a feature of how we survive as designers and creative people. It’s not the way I want it to be but it’s the way I realise I have to change to make a living as an industrial designer. I will always have cooperation with friends and brands that have a legacy like Modus. In Asia my name has become the brand that sells the brands so it makes sense to do this and support the brands I already work with.

What is it about mass production that excites you and how do you celebrate traditional materials and craftsmanship when manufacturing on an industrial scale? Mass production makes things available to the market you really want to reach because of the economies of scale. Of course, I love craftsmanship and this isn’t something that is limited to small scale production. Mass production is about working with artisans on every single level, if we do this on the scale we wish to, we will succeed in giving things to people that they normally cannot afford.

Richard (Hutten) once described your approach as rigorous and polished. How would you describe his approach and from where do you think the root of these two approaches stems? Both Richard and I know what time served means so we don’t have an issue about making things and working with clients like yourselves. I think we deliver real things to real clients, it’s real materials and experience. That could sound arrogant but we are not getting any younger and doing good things becomes more important to both of us.

We started as young punks 30 years ago, this was a time when we made things alone by hand, more like artists creating functional work. I was from what they called Brit Pop design and Richard from Gen - things were very transparent then if they had substance. We worked from the heart and soul, met to eat and drink, mainly to drink I think ....when I first heard of Richard and Droog it was like raising peace flags and creating a unity ....like, hey, we found a new country with people who do what we do, it was that rare back then.

Do you think that technology can save us from our own destruction? I think only hindsight will save us - it always has but if we look into the future as best we 17 can, I think we can do our best to make sure the mistakes of the past are not made again. If you look at the work that was done after the Second World War, everything was made for people that needed real things and that’s really what we should go back to, being diligent about just doing things for the right reasons. I am curating a new show in Hebei Provence, China, about the impact of technology on real human needs rather than what it’s capable of. Here is a prototype city in China and we are in a position to avoid destruction via initiatives like this.

If you hadn’t become an industrial designer, what do you think you would be doing now? I’d like to be a gardener, I really appreciate the land. I like to sieve soil and nurture plants and cook, it’s a microcosmos out there, my garden however, is not like the average garden you dream about in the countryside of Great Britain, we have wild snakes, vipers and cobras and at sun set wild pigs drop by.

You have been brewing beer for a little while now, will you be drinking your Michael Young Beer Shack Experience beer over the holidays? I would love to, we are making organic beer and making it a bit funky. I’m giving it away to people, it’s a special beer for design events and my friends in the design community. When I opened my office in Shenzhen I realised I owned so much stuff from around the world so I put it all in a room for the public to use and serve beer, the locals don’t get to travel much so I brought a world to them. Sadly, I can’t get there as the border has been closed for close to a year.

What has your experience of working with us been like and would you like to work with us again? Hey, it’s been so good working with a British company, we’ve loved it every inch of the way I’m talking metric, no I’m talking imperial! It’s so lovely to work with a company that has tradition in culture, it’s quite rare to work with history and as an all-time Londoner I’m really proud to be part of a community that has ethics. Design is a business built from passion, I think that way round is important. I want to build the relationship and evolve with Modus, we learn from our last opportunity. Michael by Richard Sustainably created from recycled materials, the Michael stool is one more step towards a circular economy.

Made from the scrap Named after his good friend and produced in the manufacture fellow designer Michael Young, Richard Hutten’s Michael stool is of wine corks, Richard made from FSC™ certified 100% Hutten’s new Michael recycled cork. Renewable, recyclable, tactile and naturally anti-microbial, stool makes best use of cork is the perfect material for a waste materials and helps more circular world in which one man’s waste becomes another preserve biodiverse forests. man’s resource. Every seat of the Michael stool contains 68 kg of carbon, trapped in the cork instead of creating havoc in our atmosphere and oceans. Softly concave, the seat sits on a tubular steel frame, forming a simple and playful profile. In two heights with a natural or dark toasted finish and a textured powder coat in a range of earth colours. 20 21

From forest to stool

Hand harvested using age-old techniques passed down through the generations, cork comes from the oak forests of the Mediterranean basin, biodiversity hotspots that support endangered species and endemic flora found nowhere else on the planet. Highly specialised, cork harvesting is the highest paid agricultural work in the world, providing economic security to over 100,000 people creating an ecological and economic symbiosis. The cork is stripped, stacked, steamed and carefully hand cut to create wine stoppers. The waste is gathered up to be chipped and bound into blocks before being milled to form the circular seat. 22 23 24

Richard Hutten talks to us about his new Michael stool, his 25 year friendship with Michael Young, Wittgenstein and Motörhead. If you could recycle one of your old plastic designs which would it be and what would you make it into? I hope my old plastic designs will never be recycled. I designed and made them in such a way, in collaboration with my clients, that they are very durable, strong and some of them turned into design icons so I hope they will have a long-lasting life, if not forever, and if they have to be recycled, I don’t care into what they are being recycled into but preferably not into something which is just for single use purpose but for something which has a long lifespan.

Michael named his new chair for Modus after you, what do you make of it? Of course, it is a big honour and a big pleasure that he named his chair after me and a celebration of our friendship which has lasted over 25 years. We met in the early 90s in , I remember well, in a landscape that is totally different from the design community now and we became true friends and close friends, it’s really nice that I now have the Richard chair.

Do you think the profound impact of rising sea levels on the low-lying has encouraged the Dutch to more readily adopt circular economics compared to other European nations? No. I don’t think so, it’s not being below sea level, it’s not really an issue. For us it’s normal but we also know that we are capable of keeping the sea out when the sea level rises, its’ fairly standard, we have to do it but there is a big awareness in Holland that we have to stop global warming, circular economics and circular design is a small part of the solution but the biggest part is of course that we have to make the transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources.

You are known for your positivity and humourous approach. In a world that seems hell bent on anthropomorphic destruction, how do you maintain your optimism? Optimism and playfulness, which is also a very important part, and humour, that is the way to get the message through, that we have to change. If you are not optimistic then what the hell are you doing it for? I want a better world and I’m optimistic that we can get a better world, for me there is no other way than being optimistic.

Layers appear a lot in your work, often brightly coloured, how do these stripes or layers relate to your fun-loving nature? Layers add meaning, so I like to layer products because they have layers of meanings, layers of functions, layers of perception and it gives depth to a product it also gives me the possibility to add colour and colour is definitely a sign of life. The more colourful world, the more bright, the more optimistic, the more fun.

Comfort or aesthetics? That has to be a balance of both. Comfort is of course essential but designing a chair or bar stool just for comfort reasons is not enough, there are already comfortable chairs and bar stools. So, if I had to choose between the two it would be the aesthetics which can also be called the meaning, the story or whatever you want to call it. Comfort is the starting point but it is never the ending point.

Some of your work has celebrated the copying of copies, do you think it is possible to ever design anything truly original? That is a very philosophical question. To quote Wittgenstein, what is the definition of truly original? I think it’s possible to design something truly original for sure, I think I did it many, many times, I find it’s the fun part of being a designer to come up with something you never saw before but at the same time are able to relate to.

Apart from cork, which other biological materials would you like to work with? I really like to work with materials from renewal sources which, by definition, are biological and I think wood is among the favourites, it’s strong, it ages in a nice way and you can do a lot of different things with it, wood is definitely high on my list.

Why Motörhead? Motörhead’s unbelievable. Motörhead - we are the road crew, ‘life is just a game to me, 27 win some lose some it’s all the same to me’, it’s a fantastic band and when I met Michael the first time we talked about Motörhead, we even went to some of their concerts when Lemmy was still alive, once in Holland, once in Belgium. Music is the highest form of art and Motörhead is definitely on my all- time favourite list.

Do you think technology can save us from our own destruction? I definitely think that you can call it destruction or extinction. If we continue the way we do mass extinction is unavoidable but if we use technology, especially to make the transition from fossil energy to energy from renewable sources, like air, wind and sun, then it can save us. We also need new technology to come up with alternatives for plastic because plastic is a horrible material when it comes to sustainability but we need it, especially in these COVID times, especially for medical purposes. It is very hard to find alternatives at this moment so we need bio-based plastics to replace fossil fuel, oil-based plastics, technology is essential to save us from mass extinction. 28 29 30 31 ‘Optimism, playfulness…humour, that is the way to get the message through, that we have to change.’ Richard Hutten

Delicate tube legs contrast with a gently contoured, concave seat. The Michael stool represents the very best ecoeffective design that gives back to Mother Earth. 32 33 Bob 34 Michael Sodeau

Michael Richard Hutten 35

How a simple cork stool helps to build a better world

Back in 2016 when we launched our first Since the launch of Michael Sodeau’s characterful recycled cork stool, Bob, we pledged to donate cork stool we have been planning to develop a 5% of the sales of our stool to Movement On The second range to increase our support for Movement Ground, an organisation established the previous On The Ground’s aims. That’s where Richard Hutten’s year to help improve the lives of the vast number new Michael stool comes in. Using the same of refugees arriving on the tiny Greek island of recycled material as our Bob stool, Michael has Lesvos. Lying just 4 miles from the coast of Turkey, a concave seat made entirely from industrial cork this unassuming island found itself at the forefront waste. A simple, sustainable product that in some of Europe’s refugee crisis. small way contributes to the building of a sustainable future for people on the move. Five years on and the situation has improved little, if anything, conflict has increased the scale of the crisis, forcing millions from their homes. Overcrowding on Lesvos is a big problem, designed for just 3,000 residents, earlier last year Moria camp became home to over 20,000. Now a global pandemic has added to an already critical situation and, as winter takes hold, bringing freezing temperatures and flooding, life in the refugee camps looks darker than ever.

“We dream of a world where people forced from their homes have the freedom to choose another place to call home.”

Movement On The Ground takes a radical approach to the refugee situation, looking to transform camps into dignified, stimulating and safe environments. Continue reading... 36 37 38 We spoke to Nathalie Meier of Movement On “People who are supportive of refugees, The Ground to see what the current situation who are welcoming, don’t see borders. is and how our donations might be able to help. The local Greek people and organisations are willing to help but they are tired of 5 “New arrivals are taken from the shores years of unsustainable solutions. and on Lesvos, hosted in a quarantine It’s challenging.” zone in the new temporary camp before being assigned an official place. The Nathalie explains how in such a dire situation they need for more dignified living conditions have to focus on the small wins, providing tarps, for refugees on the islands is greater tents, digging and levelling ground and getting than ever.” shelters up on pallets to prevent flooding. The new year may bring fresh challenges, volunteering The asylum procedure or confirmation of registration has ground to a halt due to the pandemic but the as a refugee is a tortuous one involving multiple ambition and vision at the heart of this incredible interviews and now, with COVID, there are huge organisation is clearer than ever. Movement On The backlogs delaying the process so thatsome Ground is not only focused on immediate needs but interviews aren’t even scheduled until 2022. also on creating long term, sustainable solutions. This means an individual’s wait in a camp, a life in limbo in poor conditions, will be extended For 2021 they have big plans, as well as building from about 18 months to 3 years. on basic infrastructure, developing community gardens and improving digital literacy they also “All human beings deserve to live in safe plan to establish a centre outside the camp that enabling and dignified environments. will provide vocational training for residents. This A place where diverse communities programme, the ‘Movement Academy’, is designed can co-exist and thrive.” to help future integration of residents into society and prevent the stagnation of skills and talent that Movement On The Ground’s raison d’être is occurs when individuals are given no opportunity to provide more dignified living conditions in to work. all refugee camps. This means making huge, transferable improvements to the bare basics. “Without a sustainable human-centred Since its inception in 2015, the organisation has foundation, no pact can make safer the provided showers, lamps, heating, electricity and livelihood of these humans on the move.” warm clothing to provide protection from winter weather. Sales of our Bob stools have so far helped Shifting public perception of what it means to be with the distribution of essential items like warm a refugee is a key aim. “Progress can only be made food and clothing as well as the building of durable when we take a human centred approach, one that shelters where families can gather to share a meal. at its very least enables dignified living conditions”. Movement On The Ground also calls for the EU to In a collaboration with the Cruyff Foundation, take an equal and honest share of people stuck on Movement On The Ground are creating three Europe’s borders and develop a transparent and football courts, one on Samos and two on Lesvos. efficient system of processing asylum requests. Over 40% of camp residents are children, living in really difficult conditions, so providing a safe space In a world seeking sustainable solutions for a better for refugee children and children from the host future, it seems fitting that the Michael stool will help islands to play is vital. build a sustainable solution to the refugee crisis. For every Michael or Bob stool we sell we will donate 5% “Everyone is a guest” to Movement On The Ground, helping them to help those who haven’t yet found a place to call home. Central to the organisation’s philosophy is the idea that ‘everyone is a guest’. Viewing refugees as guests and the local communities supporting them as hosts helps build trust and strengthen links between residents and their host communities. movementontheground.com Head Office 40 Cricket St Thomas, Chard Somerset TA20 4BZ T +44 (0)1460 258590

Showroom 28–29 Great Sutton Street EC1V 0DS T +44 (0)207 490 1358 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] modusfurniture.co.uk

Studio Photography Jake Curtis Styling Laura Fulmine Art Direction & Design StudioSmall Illustrations The Paper Crane