It is the interaction and the environmental purpose that make Sergej Gerasimenko the thinking person’s furniture-maker

MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: Encouraging play and drawing on the furniture. TOP: Sergej Gerasimenko wakes up in Milano on his makeshift cardboard bed, made up of six of his seats. CENTRE AND BOTTOM LEFT: A home of Returdesign furniture. ABOVE: Trade show stands are another one of Gerasimenko’s specialities.

   If it weren’t relevant, Gerasimenko would not have scored his coup of creating the recyclable booths for the General Election in Sweden last year. His designs are easily assembled and dismantled, no screws or glue are needed, and yet can support heavy weights. We sampled a few of Returdesign’s chairs over tea and checked out his bookcases to find that paper can be as strong as wood—if the right type is chosen and it is applied correctly. Each item is sturdy, suiting what he calls the urban nomad.
   This is not a fanciful artist’s claim: the designs have been tested. Gerasimenko recalled during one trade convention in Milano, the hotels were booked out, so he slept in the streets, on six of his cardboard stools. They had been transported in his car in collapsed form and extended into a bed, his wallet and private belongings stowed securely in the hollow area under one of them.
   And why shouldn’t they be sturdy? This is not plain cardboard, but a heavy-duty version that cannot be easily combustible, meeting European Union fire-protection rules. There are lacquered, painted versions, though for a line of “play furniture”, Gerasimenko leaves the surfaces unfinished in brown corrugated board, encouraging children to draw on them to complete the design. The blank canvases of the cardboard encourages interaction and inspiration—and it is often up to children to see the potential and indulge themselves.
   One of our favourite items was a combined seat-and-desk ensemble, but depending on the way the seat stood, it could be used for different things. The two pieces fitted together like a puzzle—a brain-teaser as well as a practical proposition. Office and home furniture and display stands form the Returdesign range, all of which can be previewed at www.returdesign.se. His real-world showroom and workshop, however, have a few additional designs that are part of Gerasimenko’s own playfulness and experimentation.
   It is the interaction and the environmental purpose that make Sergej Gerasimenko the thinking person’s furniture-maker. He lives it, too—on his web site, he encourages idea-sharing. And the environmental message extends to the ordering method—while the company accepts orders the old-fashioned way, Returdesign accepts online orders.
   While Ikea is the name that comes to mind for Swedish furniture, supporters of the Nordic countries’ modernist simplicity should consider Returdesign. Even Time did, when naming the company one of its heroes of the planet—an accolade that few furniture designers can claim. •

Jack Yan is founding publisher of Lucire.

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