Inform Interiors

The Coca-Cola Company and Emeco have combined their most iconic products, the Coca-Cola contour bottle package and the famous Navy Chair, to create a new chair made from at least 111 recycled plastic bottles. The aptly named “111 Navy Chair” debuted earlier this year at the 2010 Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, the top furniture trade show in the world.

“The 111 Navy Chair is a reflection of our commitment to sustainability, constant innovation and originality in design,” said Kate Dwyer, Group Director, Worldwide Licensing, The Coca-Cola Company. “This latest addition to our line of rPET licensed merchandise underscores the fact that Coca-Cola bottles are valuable recyclables. It is another step in our vision to recover and reuse all of our bottles and cans.”

Nancy and Niels are in London and have spotted the 111 Navy. Pictured to the left is a London retailer’s display, below is at the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion designed by Jean Nouvel.

Modeled after the original aluminium Emeco Navy Chair (#1006) designed in 1944 for the U.S. Navy, each 111 Navy Chair contains a mix of 60 percent rPET plastic (recycled polyethylene terephthalate plastic) and a special combination of other materials including pigment and glass fiber for strength. It is estimated that more than three million PET plastic bottles will be repurposed annually for the production of 111 Navy Chairs.

To commemorate the launch, Emeco has commissioned Wieden + Kennedy- a global brand strategist, Duncan Hamilton- a British ice sculptor and Peer Lindgreen- a Danish photographer- to create a startling image of the new 111 Navy Chair encased in a refreshing one-tonne ice cube.

Samantha Brookes, of the Wieden +Kennedy London office explains, “Emeco are launching their first plastic chair, the Navy 111, made from 111 recycled Coca-Cola bottles. This iconic moment within Emeco’s history needed an iconic image. So Wieden + Kennedy London cast the 111 Navy in a 1 tonne ice cube. Ice is synonymous with Coca-Cola; everyday billions of gallons of Coca-Cola are poured over ice cubes. This image not only celebrates the transformation of recycled plastic bottles into a classic chair, but the partnership between Emeco and Coca-Cola. It took two and a half weeks to cast the ice cube, and once the shoot had finished all that was left was a beautiful chair and a giant puddle. Now it’s onto Milan with a second giant ice cube.”