Designer Anastasiya Koshcheeva makes lounge chair out of tree bark
Russian-born designer has used birch bark - a material she says is ripe for revival - to create a lounge chair and ottoman
Wood has been used to make furniture since time immemorial, but tree bark is not often seen as a viable material.
According to Anastasiya Koshcheeva, a Russian designer from Siberia, who now lives in Berlin, bark is one material we should be using more of.
Koshcheeva recently made a lounge chair out of birch tree bark, which she says is 'flexible, soft, water-repellent and antibacterial, but also breathable, durable and strong'.
However, despite these unique characteristics, the material often gets forgotten, says Koshcheeva.
Called Sibirjak, the lounge chair deals with the question of how to reinterpret an age-old tradition and also how to make the conventional handcraft up-to-date.
According to Koshcheeva, 'the chair and ottoman combination emphasises the material aesthetics, combining traditional skills with modern processing. The horizontal alignment of the bark underlines the leather-like properties of the material, is welcoming and offers a wide comfortable seat. The textile details and the reduced geometric frame form a strong contrast to the natural birchbark.'