Victor Strimfors

Strata Pace Layer Products

A new way of buying, owning and designing furniture.

The purpose of this project is to make an intervention in the current systems of fast paced furniture consumption. The current model of frequently buying, using and discarding products is having a negative effect on the environment and putting strain on increasingly scarce resources. Instead we are proposing a more circular model.

Different parts of products have different life expectancies, leading to products being discarded as soon as one part is broken or outdated. By changing the perception of products from stand-alone, composed entities, to seeing them as connected layers of meaning and material with different life expectancies, Strata Pace Layer Products offers users a possibility for renewing and personalising their home without compromising the environment. In order to implement the system intervention we have developed a “Logic of Layers”, which is a recipe or protocol for how products can be designed to fit in a circular system. The Logic of Layers separates products into fast and slow layers, looking at the criteria that each type of layer should fulfil to be more environmentally responsible, as well as offering personalised solutions. “Skin Layers” are fast, customisable and should be super-recyclable. These are the top layers of products that users frequently interact with, and often the layers in conventional products with the shortest life-expectancy, which cause users to discard them. “Base Layers” are slow, and usually make up the inner parts of the product. They are resilient, long lasting, and robust. In between we have middle layers.

To explore, develop and express the Logic of Layers we have developed both a physical product, a furniture system, with each layer designed to fit the logic, and a service/business model that explores how the products can be accessed by customers.