Everything in NEWNEW has a story to tell and a life yet to live.
Pictured: Visitors admiring NEWNEW at Green Design Show 2025
Exhibited for the first time at the Green Design Show this July, NEWNEW is a zero-waste, modular installation born from a collaboration between Cultivated and Nexus Designs. With a light footprint - both literally and metaphorically - NEWNEW invites you to reimagine materials for what they could be, rather than what they are. A temporary structure founded on transparency, NEWNEW reveals the creative possibilities of design inspired by sustainable material selection. Grounded in circular values, the pavilion is a bold and imaginative exploration of circular design principles, an experience that inspires conversations about the processes, people and products behind a more sustainable future.
Photography by Timothy Kaye
The story doesn’t end at 'end-of-life'.
For Cultivated, NEWNEW is reminder that the most sustainable choice is often the one that already exists. With an estimated 300,000 tonnes of furniture waste going to landfill each year in Australia, extending the life of well-made furniture through reuse and restoration can reduce emissions by up to 90% based on new furniture manufacturing. The installation brings together some of the most compelling pieces from Cultivated’s restored collection and features a plethora of work by local Australian makers, creatives, artists championing those who are committed to shifting the narrative on waste, with the hope of lowering our collective environmental footprint, extending beyond the economical and into the natural environment. Above all, NEWNEW reflects Cultivated’s belief that the story of a furniture piece doesn’t stop at end-of-use. With care, skill and imagination, its next chapter can be just as meaningful as its first.
Pictured: Restored Knoll Bertoia Diamond Chair
Pictured: Restored Eames LCW lounge chairs
Reimagined Designer Classics
Pictured: Restored Fritz Hansen Series 7 chairs and Span Table
Our furniture is all rescued from end-of-lease commercial fitouts, refurbished by skilled local craftspeople or rejuvenated using rescued timber, new fabrics and non-toxic finishes. Reimagining designer classics like Fritz Hansen Series 7 chairs, salvaged from Auckland's convention cenre featuring new red-powder coated bases and Kvadrat Cifrado upholstery containing 42% recycled polyester. The Knoll Bertoia Diamond Chair was recovered from a Sydney office basement and reupholstered in surplus wool, naturally dyed with Stringybark by Heather Thomas. A Fritz Hansen Span Table from the Danish Embassy in Canberra sits along NAU desks from Edith Cowan University and Eames LCW chairs found in Ericsson's office basement, now painted in a bold red finish.
Pictured: Restored Ox Chair and Tom Dixon light, supplied by Cult Design
Nexus Designs
Pictured: Restored Fritz Hansen Series 7 chairs, Span Table and art pieces supplied by Artbank
Pictured: Corex cladding with signage by Other Matter
To create NEWNEW, we teamed up with multidisciplinary design studio Nexus Designs, who led the curation process, selecting pieces from our collection of over 300 pallets of rescued commercial furniture. The team specified ethically sourced and surplus textiles, collaborated with local artisans and championed circular thinking across every detail, resulting in furniture that takes on new life while maintaining design integrity. Viewed as an opportunity to elevate the value of objects and materials, shifting public and industry perception, the pavilion looks through a domestic lens, taking the vast discussion around circularity to an intimate and relatable scale.
Design inspired by sustainable material selection
Built by Mark Tuckey, NEWNEW's timber structure utilises Crafted Hardwoods, an exciting Australian product innovation that diverts trees destined for pulping and re-engineers them into exquisite hardwood. Converting sustainably sourced low-value pulp into premium hardwoods with the look and feel of trees, the space showcases a fiercely creative approach to re-use, responsible sourcing and supporting local makers as a tangible solution to the environmental crisis. The floors are recycled plinths directly from the Mark Tuckey showroom, finished with an instant dry, zero VOC hardwax oil by local family-run business Oslek Flooring.
The pavilion is finally clad in a locally made, carbon neutral, fluted board a quarter of which is already recycled and the remainder will be re-used for furniture packing by Cultivated until it is returned to the supplier at end of life for re-processing and re-use. The pavilion showcases a creative approach to re-use, responsible sourcing and supporting local makers. The feature fabrics have been ethically sourced and chosen from surplus textiles and hand-dyed using all natural dyes from local Australian tree species such as Peppermint Gum, Stringybark and Mistletoe by Heather Thomas, Wild Heather Australia.
Pictured: Crafted Hardwood White Gum
Pictured: Oslekcustom mixed zero-VOC hardwax oil
Pictured: Naturally dyed fabrics by Heather Thomas
A huge thank you for visiting NEWNEW
At NEWNEW, every detail tells a story of renewal - from ethically sourced surplus textiles and native plant dyes to reimagined icons like the Knoll Bertoia and Series 7 chairs, given new life through skilled local craftsmanship. It repositions waste as a starting point for design innovation—transforming reclaimed furniture and materials into elevated residential interiors that are both thoughtful and future-facing.
