Grow Your Own Designs Like Jonas Edvard

If furniture and lighting design is the work of wood, metal, plastic and glass, then Jonas Edvard is changing all the rules. How about a seaweed chair? Or a mushroom lamp? 

 The 33-year-old’s thought-provoking designs all begin with the raw ingredients of nature’s own building blocks. His MYX lamp, for instance, is not built, but rather grown—from mycelium, the fungal root material that produces mushrooms. The mushrooms are harvested (and eaten!) as they form into a mounded bed, leaving behind the textile-like root system to dry and transform into a lightweight lampshade.

In another product range, Edvard and codesigner Nikolaj Steenfatt use the natural polymer in seaweed to create a material that’s soft like cork and tough enough for chairs. The resulting pieces are modern and functional, with a tactile earthiness that makes the designer’s focus on sustainability clear. 

 This dedication to organic solutions can be traced back to the nature reserve in northern Denmark where Edvard grew up. "The salty water and dark pine forest were my places to hang out," he explains. "The quietness and steady rhythm of nature and its inhabitants made me come to think of life as a complex and profound place that already contained the answers."