OSISU, Design Principal
Singh Intrachooto
Waste Not,
Want Not
Singh Intrachooto's motto is to “reclaim and create,” a phrase he puts into practice as Design Principal at OSISU. The recycled furniture design company, which the pioneer of ecological design founded in 2006, is now Thailand's leading eco-design production house.
Biography
Singh Intrachooto is the Head of the Building Innovation and Technology Programme at Kasetsart University in Bangkok and the Design Principal at OSISU, Thailand's leading eco-design production house.
A pioneer of ecological design in Thailand, Intrachooto is the Design Innovation Ambassador for Thailand’s National Innovation Agency. He received Thailand’s Emergent Designer of the Year Award in 2007, Elle Décor’s Designer of the Year Award in 2007 as well as the Top Environmentalist Award from Thailand’s Department of Environment in 2008.
Intrachooto's motto is to “reclaim and create,” a phrase he puts into practice whether it is recycling carton boards into a loveseat, disregarded office paper into stools, sandpapers into benches, and scraps from button manufacturing into terrazzo floor.
Since the architect-cum-designer launched his recycled furniture design company OSISU in 2006, its sales have been growing 30–40 percent every year. “I want people to know that being friendly and good to the environment is a viable business. You can create something that solves problems and make a good living with it,” says Intrachooto.
OSISU's rule is that the more scraps are considered worthless, the more they need to work with the scraps because they immediately become environmental problems. Over the years, Intrachooto has experimented with construction debris, smashing it and mixing it with cement and glass to create blocks that can be stacked. He has compressed fibreglass found in jacuzzis and sink manufacturing facilities, transforming it into insulation acoustic board. Stranger materials such as button scraps, orange peel and lemongrass can also be found in OSISU's designs.
The name “OSISU” derives from the Finnish word for “guts”—something they certainly needed at the time.
Intrachooto has also created a new construction material called Scapa. These mass-produced, polymer-based panels are made of recycled resin thermosetting left over from the production of buttons. Scapa is durable and can be used to produce tabletops, cabinets, or utilised as parts within the construction of a building.
Realising that there is only so much OSISU can achieve on its own, Intrachooto is also keen to reach out to the next generation of designers by bridging academia and industry to leverage technology, education and production approaches to stimulate environmentally responsible innovations within the design and architecture industry. Since 2007, he has trained others in the ‘OSISU way’ with the Scrap Lab at Kasetsart University.
Intrachooto also teaches design at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Washington and gives lectures in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and the United States. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Design Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his research focuses on identifying patterns of technological innovation in environmentally sustainable and responsible architecture, material developments from manufacturing and agricultural by-products, as well as waste reclamation from building construction and debris.
Website: osisu.com
