Integration between sustainable construction materials and sustainable furniture design

Producing unattractive concrete usually reduces the importance of its use in public products. This research focuses mainly on the applications of concrete material in product design especially the public seating units considering that the final product is not offering only a strong sustainable material to withstand or decrease vandalism but also to show distinguished visual features. The produced seating units use marble concrete as the main product component. Regarding the marble concrete mechanical and durability tests were performed to make sure that the concrete could be used for structural and non-structural elements. Marble concrete were tested to replace natural aggregate with marble waste with different percentages (10 − 20% − 30 − 50% − 75 − 100%). In addition, the results showed that the final appearance of the concrete outer surfaces can be predicted if the concrete mixtures are well considered in terms of color, intricacy, texture, and size. As a kind of interdisciplinary cooperation between the civil engineering –technical and experimental aspect- and product design program at the faculty of applied sciences and arts representing the design aspect, a public seating element project was implemented to meet the outdoor character and to rethink the integration between the technical and design aspects during the process of product development.