The Eye

Terra Is Literally a Lawn Chair—a Chair That You Grow in Your Yard

Nucleo

Back at the turn of this century, Torino, Italy–based design and art collective Nucleo came up with an eccentric idea: to grow a sustainable lawn chair made of living grass that you could plant in your backyard. Terra was a design-world hit, winning an award and exhibited at museums like Paris’ Centre Pompidou.

Nucleo

The designers sold 4,000 units to people around the world before they stopped production in 2005. Now they are bringing Terra 2.0 to the masses with a Kickstarter campaign to allow anyone who wants one to plant a lawn chair in his or her backyard and watch it grow. (The Kickstarter page includes love seat and sofa models as well.)

Designers Piergiorgio Robino and Andrea Sanna.

Nucleo

Do you need a green thumb to grow your own grass-covered molded lawn chair? Maybe not. The Terra kit comes with a laser-cut cardboard frame that arrives in a flat pack that you slot together, cover with dirt and sand, sprinkle with seeds, water, and watch grow.

Nucleo

Nucleo

The designers say that grass will start appearing after 10 days of daily watering, and the chair should be covered in green grass in about two months. Once your light work has come to fruition, you just need to trim the chair with shears to keep it from looking as overgrown as a Brooklyn beard.

Nucleo

The designers said in a project description that Terra, unlike most of the objects that make their way into our living environments, is “not a finished product” but “an idea.” They added: “We provide the cardboard frame, the main ingredient, the dirt can be found everywhere on our planet. The armchair will be born in your garden and becomes part of your landscape.”