You don’t expect the inflatable couch you bought for your lounge room to last longer than a month. But Oskar Zieta’s inflatable furniture will. It’s actually made of steel you inflate yourself, making it impervious to thumbtacks and other abuse.
The idea behing the unique collection was to create lightweight pieces of furniture that were easy to transport and also durable. But instead of the build-it-yourself wooden puzzles that have made IKEA popular, Zieta’s creations are made from sheets of steel welded at the edges. And turning the flat objects into usable furniture simply requires a bit of folding and inflation.
You’ll of course need a bike pump or an air compressor to inflate them. Even an Olympic athlete with lungs of steel doesn’t have a chance of doing it by mouth like a balloon. But once inflated the rigid structures are strong enough to support even someone sitting on them. Just don’t expect IKEA-like prices — that simple chair, for example, runs almost $US800. [Zieta Prozessdesign via PSFK]
