Is expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam the new black?  A recent visit to a contemporary furniture showroom in SoHo left me feeling that way.  There were a number of (very expensive) chairs, lamps, tables and tchotchkes on display, all made from this material, which I can’t help but associate with new toaster ovens and bad takeout coffee.  Just as environmental organizations are fighting to outlaw the recyclable but non-biodegradable plastic, it’s been taken up by industrial designers.

Massimiliano Adami makes unique hand-crafted pieces, including cabinets and standing lamps, from the foam and embeds it with cheap, bright things like ski poles, spray bottles, pencil sharpeners, and traffic cones.  Sometimes he mixes clouds of glitter into the foam.  Cheng Cheng makes  vases by wrapping glassware in fabric netting and injecting foam in between.  The results are menacing, as if the foam is some sort of uncontrollable, disease-carrying bio-matter.  And there are other pieces, like Tokujin Yoshioka’s chair wrapped in moving blankets, and Gaetano Pesce’s brightly-colored resin vases, that have the same toxic, liquid aspect.  Designers traditionally want to control the materials they work with; now they’re letting go, dramatically.