Sara Regal forms construction waste material into "layering cake" furniture

Mallorca-based Sara Regal showcased seats made from building waste at fashion designer Cecilie Bahnsen's showroom for the two-day Residue: Soft Remains installation during 3 Days of Design.

Regal's six modular seating designs were a continuation of her earlier work, which explores the future of waste materials in design.

"Previously, [when] I was working with the construction waste, I was deconstructing it and making a new material," she told Dezeen.

"But in this case, I wanted to take advantage of the larger format of the scraps I found on the construction site, and use it in a project in a more constructivist way."

To form the sculptural seats, Regal mixed synthetic waste such as insulation materials and polyester with natural waste, including wood planks and cork.

Their shapes vary depending on what material she could find on the construction sites around Mallorca, where she sources it.

"I want to take advantage of the beauty that is in these scraps, explore this inner, trashy beauty," Regal said. "With these materials, [the companies] would have to pay to put them into the waste system, though some parts might be recycled."

The six seats were all made up of a mix of different materials, with Regal describing one as being constructed like a cake.

"It has a bit of everything inside, it's kind of a collage or a layering cake of different kinds of natural and synthetic materials," she explained.

Her sculptural, organic-looking seating designs were finished with a projected polyester covering, and some had shapes that were formed by large polyester pieces that Regal had found.

While she's continuously exploring new ways to use waste, Regal said the pieces in the Residue: Soft Remains installation could also be added to in the future.

"I always work with waste material in different ways; what I do is not an evolution, but you want to try all the different ways, you add something every time," she said.

"This is going to be the first and most unique [version], but then it's probably going to be like, 'let's make a whole modular system with the same texture', or 'let's apply this to a table'."

The two-day exhibition took place during Copenhagen's 3 Days of Design event and was organised by Spain's Vasto Gallery founder Carmen Riestra, Art Studies founder María Bãnos and Bahnsen.

Other 3 Days of Design events this year included a collectible design-exhibition by five Taiwanese designers and furniture made from imperfect timber.

The photography is by Tine Bek, film by Gabriel Moran.

Residue: Soft Remains was on show in Copenhagen from 19 to 20 June 2025 during 3 Days of Design. See Dezeen Events Guide for more events taking place in the Danish capital and elsewhere around the world.

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