Hollow Tube Technique

Dirk van der Kooij founded his studio during his studies at Design Academy Eindhoven in 2009 with the question: can plastic perform as an honest, durable material? In van der Kooij’s studio, form follows process as the pathways of recycling and repurposing discarded plastic, leather, CDs, and wood dictate the future design.

Van der Kooij researched whether waste materials can be used in a pulverised form to which auxiliary materials are added directly. As this would eliminate the need for energy-intensive recycling, such a method for breathing new life into garbage would have immense value. Van der Kooij prints plastic furniture; he developed a technique called the Hollow Tube Technique, where he repurposed a spray-paint machine for cars to stringprint plastic material. The NotOnlyHollow Chair, produced in a limited edition of 25, is made of pulverised CDs, which are sorted, pulverised, regranulated and mixed with a nontoxic binder of recycled polycarbonate flakes. Since 2016, van der Kooij has refined the uses for pulverised CDs with his Discography table.