Loofah: at last, a bamboo alternative.

The Lufa Series by Mexican designer Fernando Laposse offers followers and observers of sustainable design a welcome departure from bamboo. True. The material is fabulously eco, but ubiquitous to the point of leaving one bamboo’d out.

Alternatively loofah, an edible fruit related to the pumpkin and cucumber, grows abundantly and rabidly. Like bamboo, it can also be harvested with minimal impact.

Bath enthusiasts have long loved the loofah for its exfoliating prowess; now Laposse is experimenting with the fibrous sustainable fruit in furniture design.

The result: lather it up. Laposse’s Lufa Series is lightweight, textured and insulating. In its natural or pressed-down state, it compliments the wood, cement and terra cotta the designer uses as a framework.

As you can see with his room partition, the material is also transluscent, gently diffusing any light source within or outside of the room.

Laposse’s loofah desk gives the impression of something much heavier.

Fermando Laposse is a recent graduate of Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, in London. Who knows? He just might have discovered the new bamboo.

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