Soft Monument : A Place to Pause

A Dutch Icon reinterpreted

Soft Monument reinterprets the iconic Dutch bean bag through upcycling. Instead of producing a new textile surface, we work with discarded paragliding sails: highly technical, lightweight fabrics already shaped by colour, movement and use. Transformed into a new collection of bean bags, these materials give a familiar object a new identity and invite us to reconsider comfort, value and waste.

A Material Practice

Material Practice

Amy Tidmarsh’s approach begins with the material itself: observing its weight, movement, surface, traces of use and existing construction before deciding how to intervene. Rather than treating upcycling as a simple substitution of one material for another, she sees it as a way of designing with what is already there. In Soft Monument, the paragliding sails become a starting point for experimentation, allowing their colours, seams, transparency and imperfections to guide the final form of each piece.

A Place to Pause

The bean bag collection is presented within Soft Monument, an immersive installation built from reusable scaffolding and suspended paragliding sails. Together, the structure and soft furniture create a colourful refuge where DDW visitors can sit, rest and gather. In the middle of an intense design week, the project offers a simple proposition: giving both materials and people a second place to land.