Designers Ayse Birsel and Bibi Seck have designed the Canoe Boat Collection of furniture that are made in Dakar, Senegal, from 75% recycled garbage bags and plastic bottles. This is furniture that resembles a canoe boat. then pour into a unique and modern furnishings. The furniture is manufactured by Transtech, a Senegalese maker of cisterns and septic tanks utilizing recycled plastic. Bibi was researching industrialized facilities to make local furniture in Senegal and kept coming up empty handed. He met Transtech owner Marie Jo Sanchez Girardon, a woman business owner in a men’s world, as he was about to give up. Together they decided to insert the Canoe Boat  Collection into the production line. Canoe Boat  stool and table draw inspiration from the daily habits of Western Africans, who traditionally sit on stools or squat on the floor around low tables to eat from a communal tray laden with food and then spend hours conversing and drinking Attaya tea, a potent gun-powder black tea infused with mint leaves and quantities of sugar. Canoe Boat  pieces come in a myriad of colors—, corals, blues, greens—, depending on the color of the recycled plastic content, lending the pieces a visual quality reminiscent of “careaux cassées,” the broken tile floors so popular in Dakar. Canoe Boat  pieces can be used indoors or outdoors.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 2nd, 2011 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Furniture Design. Tags: Africa, Ayse Birsel, Bibi Seck, Canoe, Canoeing, Dakar, Economic Community of West African States, food, Geography, Marie Jo Sanchez Girardon, Person Communication and Meetings, Seck, Senegal, TRANSTECH SYSTEMS INC.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.