Working with plastic that has been through multiple rounds of recycling poses a big design challenge. While polymers remain cooperative after being recycled once and even twice, they become far less stable after a third pass — making them much less likely to produce sturdy results with traditional manufacturing techniques like injection moulding. One solution is to develop designs and production methods that are more forgiving to these material limitations. It’s this idea that led East London design and craft studio Gareth Neal and Rotterdam research and design studio The New Raw (run by Panos Sakkas and Foteini Setaki) to partner on a two-year project.
Funded by Better Factory through a 2019 European Union grant aimed at fostering sustainable manufacturing methods, the trio experimented with faster, less risky ways to 3D-print materials that maintain greater structural stability. Their breakthrough involves continuously looping upcycled plastic into a woven form that blends traditional and digital craft.
“Reearching the methods used in basketry, knitting and crocheting, we figured out how we could utilize the capabilities of a robot arm to create strong joints through woven loops and hooking,” explains Neal. “Instead of building a surface through layers — the conventional 3D-printing method — our approach threads forms into nests,” adds Sakkas.
During the 2023 London Design Festival, Neal and The New Raw debuted the Loopy lounge chair. Made from a minimum of 80 per cent recycled plastic polymers — including some that had been thrice recycled — the undulating pink lounge chair is an efficient use of an otherwise unstable material. Here, the designers reveal their production process, which they plan to use for other types of digitally woven furniture down the road.
Loopy combines ancient weaving techniques — in particular, the willow style often used in knitting and crochet — with the latest technology.
Guided by a calibrated algorithm (itself based on a handcrafted pattern), a 3D printer feeds thick strands of molten material into interlocking loops.
The chair must be produced in a single go; any printing interruption requires the process to restart.
By threading coils together, the automated robot gradually weaves an intricate plastic knit that’s strong enough to sit on.
Using less material than a solid plastic chair (and producing no additional waste), Loopy can be fabricated by The New Raw in any colour on demand, meaning there’s no need to allocate space for stock.
Gateth Neal and The New Raw unravel a fresh digital fabrication technique.