Brand manager of Cultivated Joshua Ellis says up to 300,000 tonnes of furniture — almost five times the weight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge — are sent to landfill in Australia every year.

Decreasing this statistic is at the heart of what Cultivated does, and the crux of their upcoming installation hosted in collaboration with Nexus Designs now showing at the Green Design Show.

NEWNEW is a striking modular pavilion housing pieces of restored furniture, demonstrating how items otherwise destined for landfill can be transformed into elevated residential interiors through circular design principles.

Nexus Designs led the NEWNEW curation process, selecting pieces from Cultivated’s collection of over 300 pallets of rescued commercial furniture to be brought back to life through careful restoration work.

Visitors will encounter reimagined design classics including Fritz Hansen Series 7 chairs salvaged from Auckland’s convention centre with new powdercoated bases and Kvadrat Cifrado upholstery.

Knoll Bertoia Diamond chairs recovered from a Sydney office basement have been reupholstered in deadstock wool naturally dyed with stringybark; a Fritz Hansen Span Table from the Danish Embassy in Canberra sits alongside NAU desks from Edith Cowan University; and Eames LCW chairs found in an Ericsson basement have been painted in a bold red finish.

The pavilion itself embodies circular principles through its construction by celebrated furniture maker Mark Tuckey and local timber innovators Crafted Hardwoods.

Designed as a zero-waste project, the pavilion is intended to be continuously deconstructed and reused, with its materials repurposed or rehomed once it’s eventually decommissioned.

Flooring created from reclaimed timber from Mark Tuckey’s showroom and translucent cladding made from recycled polypropylene contribute to the pavilion’s closed-loop materiality.

The interior feels more like a home than a showroom, offering a familiar and approachable take on refurbished furniture.

Above all, NEWNEW reflects Cultivated and Nexus Designs’ 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.

The installation aims to set a new standard, minimising the use of finite resources, and teaching people to see something for what it could be — not for what it is.

Learn more about how NEWNEW challenges and disrupts through innovation, exploration, and education in this video.

Register to visit NEWNEW by Cultivated x Nexus Designs closing tomorrow at the Green Design Show as part of Decor + Design 2025 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre

NEWNEW Pavilion 
Green Design Show | Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Wednesday 16-Friday 18 July 2025
decordesignshow.com.au/greendesignshow