Isomi creates 3D-knitted sofa with air as the only cushioning material

Designer Paul Crofts and furniture brand Isomi have applied 3D-knitting to sofa design with Knit One, a foam-free modular couch debuting at NeoCon 2025 this week.

The seating system consists of simple metal frames with 3D-knitted fabric covers stretched over them.

Created for commercial contract environments, the design leaves the sides of each module open, drawing attention to the fact that there is nothing inside except empty space.

Knit One is a follow-up to Crofts and Isomi's 2024 Tejo sofa, for which cork, wool and latex provided structure and padding instead of problematic polyurethane foam.

"This time, I wanted to go even further and not just replace materials but remove them altogether where possible," Crofts told Dezeen. "It's about achieving comfort, structure and volume with the absolute minimum."

3D knitting is a zero-waste process in which computer-programmed machines make three-dimensional forms from a continuous piece of yarn.

While chairs, especially task chairs, are sometimes made this way, it is virtually unheard of for a sofa or entire seating system. That's because it likely wouldn't be practical for a sofa in the home environment, Crofts explained.

"Typically, 3D knitting requires structural support at regular intervals, which limits its use in larger formats like sofas," he said. "For domestic furniture, this can be limiting. People want to sprawl or lie across a sofa."

In other words, a 3D-knitted piece of furniture would not be great to lie across, unless it comes in the form of a hammock.

"But in contract and commercial environments, where seating zones are more clearly defined, it works beautifully," Crofts added. "Knit One embraces that by using curvature and fabric tension to visually and physically define those user zones."

Knit One is based on a single lounge chair module that can be combined in multiples to create a sofa or paired with backless and curved pieces to make larger seating configurations.

"Once the modules are placed together, you get this sculptural mass that's made almost entirely of air and textile," said Crofts.

For the textile, which is made of 100 per cent recycled and recyclable polyester, Crofts and Isomi collaborated with fabric brand Camira.

Their goal was to make the sofa look inviting by emulating the look of traditional upholstery and deviating from the usual open mesh structure of 3D-knitted fabric.

Instead, Knit One's textile has a tighter knit that appears opaque and textured. It is also ribbed to hark back to classic stitching details.

The sofa is completed with a mild steel frame that holds the highly tensioned textile in place without visible fixings.

"It had to be lightweight for flatpack shipping but also strong enough to maintain the form under constant tension," said Crofts. "Every part of the process had to be rethought, from how it's made to how it's assembled."

Crofts is one of three co-founders of the Isomi brand alongside Nick Welsh and Jenny Davies. The company is launching Knit One in their showroom at The Mart in Chicago as part of design trade show NeoCon this week.

Other brands that have taken up the challenge of creating foam-free soft seating include British brand Morgan with its Bruton sofa designed by SmithMatthias and Turkish manufacturer Deberenn, which is behind the Rethink Softly initiative.

NeoCon 2025 takes place from 9 to 11 June 2025 at The Mart in Chicago. For more exhibitions, talks and events in architecture and design, visit Dezeen's Event Guide.

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