Construction and demolition generate huge volumes of scrap—wood planks, insulation foam, cork, polyester offcuts—that often end up in landfills. But Spanish designer Sara Regal is reimagining that debris as something beautiful and functional. At the 3 Days of Design festival in Copenhagen, she unveiled a series called Residue: Soft Remains, consisting of sculptural seating made entirely from construction waste. Each piece reclaims material identity, texture, and history to produce furniture that looks raw, layered, and deeply sustainable.
By turning overlooked leftovers into design statements, Regal shows how waste can be more than material ruin—it can be a source of aesthetic energy, local identity, and ecological responsibility.
The Materials: What Was Used
Regal gathered a variety of discarded building materials from around Mallorca. Key components in her work include:
Insulation foam – soft, lightweight, often used for packaging or thermal insulation in buildings.
Polyester offcuts – synthetic scraps from manufacturing, with color and sheen.
Wooden planks – structural or decorative boards leftover from construction sites.
Cork – harvested from cork panels or flooring, rich in texture and natural look.
Rather than processing every material into a uniform mass, Regal retains as much of the original texture, shape, and visual variation as possible. The seats are assembled like layered collages, each layer reflecting the form and limitation of the original scrap.
The Design & Craft: Intentional Imperfection
What makes Regal’s seating series striking isn’t just sustainability—it’s how the pieces wear their origins:
Form shaped by waste: Each seat is unique in shape, guided by the pieces at hand—some curved, some flat, some bulky. Rather than forcing materials into a fixed template, she adapts the design to the waste.
Surface treatment: Found polyester is used to cover parts of the seating, providing comfort where people touch, while also adding vibrant reflections and softness.
Visual collage: The layered combo—foam, wood, cork, synthetic textures—creates tactile contrast, contrast in roughness vs. smoothness, cold vs. warm materials.
Exposed aesthetics: The origins of the materials are not hidden. Nail holes, uneven edges, mismatched textures are visible—celebrated rather than concealed.
Making It Real: From One-Off to Potential System
Although Residue: Soft Remains was a one-off collection, Regal imagines a broader future. She envisions modular systems—benches, tables, partitions—following the same ethos of reuse, local sourcing, and responsive form. Rather than replicating a single design, she proposes a practice: design through discovery, using what’s at hand, seeing waste as resource.
Why It Matters
Regal’s work intersects aesthetics, environmental responsibility, and material innovation. Here are some of its wider implications:
Circular design in action: This isn’t theory—it’s furniture made from actual scrap. That helps shift thinking in design and interiors toward reuse and away from new resources.
Local resource use: By sourcing materials locally (Mallorca), transportation, carbon, and waste are minimized.
Embracing imperfection: In an era of pristine design expectations, these pieces stand out. They remind us that texture, history, and signs of use can be beautiful.
Inspiration for product and furniture designers: Regal’s project demonstrates a method and mindset—even small, intuitive experiments with waste can yield compelling results.
Challenges & Practical Considerations
While inspiring, there are practical trade-offs and challenges:
Comfort vs. structure: Some scrap materials (foam, wood) lack ergonomic consistency or durability. Ensuring seating is comfortable and safe under use is essential.
Scaling to production: One-off works are feasible; establishing production systems (even modular) poses supply, quality, and consistency issues.
Durability / aging: Exposure to moisture, sun, wear & tear will test materials differently—wood might crack, foam degrade, polyester fade. Maintaining functional life is key.
Cost & labor: More hand-crafting, more adjustment per piece—often more labor than mass-produced furniture with standard materials. But reuse offsets raw material cost.
Applications & Potential
Where can this kind of work be used or scaled?
Public installations: Parks, plazas, or lobbies where design statements matter.
Boutique interiors: Hotels, galleries, showrooms that value artisanal, locally-rooted design.
Modular furniture systems: Tables, benches, stools made from local scrap.
Educational or demonstration projects: Universities or design schools adopting Rebel’s method to teach circular design.
FAQs
Q1: Are these seats safe? Yes—Regal used sturdy scrap materials (wood, cork) and structural joinery. But full safety tests (load, edges, stability) will be important for public or commercial use.
Q2: How long will they last? With proper finishings and maintenance, wood and cork can last many years. Foam and polyester may degrade faster; exposure to elements or heavy wear will determine lifespan.
Q3: Is this cost-effective? Material-cost could be very low, especially if scrap is free. Labor and design time are the costs. If scaled, local workshops could offset labor with value for design.
Q4: Can this method work everywhere? Yes, in principle. Key is having scrap available, design flexibility, and willingness to accept variation. In areas with lots of construction waste, it’s particularly well-suited.
Conclusion
Sara Regal’s sculptural seating shows that waste isn’t just residue—it’s a palette. Through simple, intuitive use of found materials—foam, wood, polyester, cork—she creates pieces that feel intentional, expressive, and deeply rooted in circular design.
What starts as debris becomes design, what starts as loss becomes possibility. As designers, makers, and communities, embracing imperfect waste could open doors to design rooted in place, story, and sustainability. If this mindset scales, every leftover board, foam block, or cork offcut has potential—not as trash, but as resource.
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Sculptural Seating from Construction Scrap: Turning Waste into Artful Furniture
Introduction
Construction and demolition generate huge volumes of scrap—wood planks, insulation foam, cork, polyester offcuts—that often end up in landfills. But Spanish designer Sara Regal is reimagining that debris as something beautiful and functional. At the 3 Days of Design festival in Copenhagen, she unveiled a series called Residue: Soft Remains, consisting of sculptural seating made entirely from construction waste. Each piece reclaims material identity, texture, and history to produce furniture that looks raw, layered, and deeply sustainable.
By turning overlooked leftovers into design statements, Regal shows how waste can be more than material ruin—it can be a source of aesthetic energy, local identity, and ecological responsibility.
The Materials: What Was Used
Regal gathered a variety of discarded building materials from around Mallorca. Key components in her work include:
Rather than processing every material into a uniform mass, Regal retains as much of the original texture, shape, and visual variation as possible. The seats are assembled like layered collages, each layer reflecting the form and limitation of the original scrap.
The Design & Craft: Intentional Imperfection
What makes Regal’s seating series striking isn’t just sustainability—it’s how the pieces wear their origins:
Making It Real: From One-Off to Potential System
Although Residue: Soft Remains was a one-off collection, Regal imagines a broader future. She envisions modular systems—benches, tables, partitions—following the same ethos of reuse, local sourcing, and responsive form. Rather than replicating a single design, she proposes a practice: design through discovery, using what’s at hand, seeing waste as resource.
Why It Matters
Regal’s work intersects aesthetics, environmental responsibility, and material innovation. Here are some of its wider implications:
Challenges & Practical Considerations
While inspiring, there are practical trade-offs and challenges:
Applications & Potential
Where can this kind of work be used or scaled?
FAQs
Q1: Are these seats safe?
Yes—Regal used sturdy scrap materials (wood, cork) and structural joinery. But full safety tests (load, edges, stability) will be important for public or commercial use.
Q2: How long will they last?
With proper finishings and maintenance, wood and cork can last many years. Foam and polyester may degrade faster; exposure to elements or heavy wear will determine lifespan.
Q3: Is this cost-effective?
Material-cost could be very low, especially if scrap is free. Labor and design time are the costs. If scaled, local workshops could offset labor with value for design.
Q4: Can this method work everywhere?
Yes, in principle. Key is having scrap available, design flexibility, and willingness to accept variation. In areas with lots of construction waste, it’s particularly well-suited.
Conclusion
Sara Regal’s sculptural seating shows that waste isn’t just residue—it’s a palette. Through simple, intuitive use of found materials—foam, wood, polyester, cork—she creates pieces that feel intentional, expressive, and deeply rooted in circular design.
What starts as debris becomes design, what starts as loss becomes possibility. As designers, makers, and communities, embracing imperfect waste could open doors to design rooted in place, story, and sustainability. If this mindset scales, every leftover board, foam block, or cork offcut has potential—not as trash, but as resource.
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