George Clarke’s Sustainable Sofa

We met George Clarke at a special event organised by Sofology at Redbrick Mill, to learn how he designed the award-winning sustainable sofa.

George Clarke is always interesting! He always sounds so enthusiastic about people’s renovation projects, on all his TV programmes. It’s inspiring. So any chance to meet him and hear his views about frankly anything, sounds like a good idea!

And the purpose of the event was the hot topic of Sustainability. In the midst of the UK Government delaying the “Net Zero” plans for the country, it’s the right time for everyone to do their bit and think of ways to live more sustainably. Every little change we can make ourselves will make a small difference to the final outcome. Of course, it will take the large corporations to make changes to really make a difference. But that doesn’t let us off the hook.

The Gaia Sofa range

Designed by Mr Clarke and the team at Sofology, this range of comfortable sofas was set to be a first in the world of sustainable living right from the beginning. It features no staples! A typical sofa has approximately 15,000 staples attached to the construction of the frame, the underlayers and the outer furnishing fabrics. This makes it nearly impossible to unpick the fabrics and the frame materials for re-purposing. The Sofology Gaia range is instead constructed with clever wedges and a small set of easily-removed bolts and screws which hold the frame together and pin the fabrics securely to the frame.

Using Full Circle™ (patent pending) technology, which features innovative construction methods & componentry, each element can be quickly unclipped, unbolted and unscrewed with ease to completely dismantle the sofa. This means all the individual parts can be more easily recycled or repurposed at the end of the sofa’s life. Source: Sofology

In addition to this, the fabric used on the sofa is made from 85% recycled materials, reducing waste that would otherwise have gone to landfill. Also, the seat cushions are made from a new generation of sustainably sourced foam made using plant based materials. The base is formed from an innovative slat suspension system which supports the seats. The slats are fully recyclable at the end of the sofa’s life.

Towards the end of the event, George and one of the engineers from Sofology, took the Gaia armchair apart. It only took about 15 minutes to disassemble the whole piece. What was interesting was the small amount of components used, compared to a typical armchair. Having no staples to remove greatly reduced the effort involved. All the individual pieces were laid out on the floor. Then George and the engineer lay down amongst the pieces for an aerial flat-lay photo! One for the Sofology photo album!

Thanks to Sofology for putting on the event! Inspiring & informative. Looking forward to the next one now..