Since I’m a certified bookworm, I’m always on the lookout for recommended reading chairs. Of course, the first thing I look for is something that’s comfortable so I can spend hours sitting on it and devouring my latest read. There are also those that may appeal to me because of the design although I probably can’t sit that long on it even though it’s a well-crafted kind of chair. If the concept proposes to use eco-friendly materials, that’s another selling point. Well, if it eventually becomes something to be sold.

Designer: You-Hau Wu

Agriculture is not something that’s not necessarily associated with furniture. But for this designer that was looking for materials for sustainable designs, agricultural waste, specifically rice husk, became his inspiration and material. So the design of the reading stool became rice-inspired as well, with the round shapes of the actual chair seat and the stand itself giving off a “harmonious emotion” between the bionic design and the human who will be sitting on it.

When it comes to sustainable materials, he proposes using a mix of the rice husk and carbon, breaking them down and mixing the materials together and then using perfusion molding to shape it into the final chair design. The seat surface itself is made from braided straw but with the rice husk used as the base for the cushion. At the bottom of the stool, the straw is used as well. This brings the idea of sustainable design full circle, so to speak.

Design-wise, the stool looks like a sculpture with an agricultural spin to it. But as a reading chair, it doesn’t seem to look like something that you would sit in for a long period of time. Even though the cushion may make it more breathable and comfortable, the fact that it doesn’t have something to rest your back on may not make it an ideal chair for reading. Well, unless you put the rice husk stool against a wall of course.