Ekoa provides the look and feel of wood without trees
Ekoa looks like wood—it has the warm, earthy hue, the swirling wood-like grains, the smooth, sanded finish. And yet, Ekoa is not wood. Dining Chair
Lingrove, the company behind Ekoa, developed the composite material from flax linen fiber that’s combined with bio-resin from industrial waste. Mold it, cure it under high heat and pressure, and the process produces a wood-like material that’s lighter than carbon fiber, stronger than steel, moldable like plastic, and carbon negative.
Lingrove originally developed Ekoa to build bodies for high-end guitars, but it’s keen to show off how the eco-friendly material can be used in furniture, too. This week, the company unveiled a replica of Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Chair made almost entirely from Ekoa.
8 Seater Circular Dining Table To create its curvy dimensions, the Ekoa paste was set in a mold and cured, a process not so different from how Saarinen made the original chair. The end product looks like the 1957 classic—only, you know, slightly better for the environment.