Brutalist X-Chair goes easy on the environment with 100% recycled material

German designer Hermann August Weizenegger has a chair that is partial delight for anyone who appreciates Brutalism (including yours truly) and partial environment sustainability initiative. Made of 100 percent recycled polypropylene, Weizenegger's X-Chair is the designer's take on "gentle brutalism." It's a pairing of words you don't see often. In an exhibition at the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts, according to Design Milk, Weizenegger revealed the X-Chair as the central point of the solo display.

"The architectural design by Rolf Gutbrod is controversial because the internal structure is very restless and there is no space for the actual exhibits. This museum fascinates me because it makes it difficult to exhibit – like life, it challenges you, it doesn’t make it easy for you, you have to get used to it, you have to adjust to it," Weizenegger explains. It turned out to be the perfect spot for the X-Chair.

Many possibilities with X-Chair — According to Design Milk, X-Chair was manufactured by Objekte Unserer Tage. What makes this particular chair so intriguing and potentially a market success — depending on whether people can soften up to the austerity of Brutalism — is that its base material polypropylene is entirely recycled. "In view of the ecological situation, we need objects that are produced sustainably and regionally," he explained to Design Milk.

To that end, X-Chair can be turned into a side table, a sitting spot, a little reading table, and is usable in both indoor and outdoor settings. You can take it to the park, by a pool, to a rooftop party, wherever.

X-Chair might take off — Sustainable design isn't going anywhere. These days modern consumer choices are often made with environmentally friendly material and production in mind. Because of that push to do better by the environment and potentially reduce our carbon footprint, researchers are trying to debut fashion designs and items that are not hostile to the world we live in.

It would be too soon to predict the success of these designs. But if people can open up to a matte black chair like Weizenegger's seat, we might see X-Chair take off in the market. If it helps, there's a reason for that color. "At the end of the process, all recycled materials are dyed black, making them the darkest shade on the color scale," Weizenegger told Design Milk. "But I could only think of the chair in black. The architectural structure of the chair had to have a strong, bold color, that is reminiscent of black concrete."