Furnitubes Grows AKRI Range with AKRI Snap

Furnitubes, a Kent-based outdoor furniture company with a focus on sustainable urban design, has added a new product to its modular AKRI planter range, AKRI Snap. This addition expands the possibilities of their bespoke planter and seating solution with faster lead-times and simplified design principles for quicker project completion. 

Faster Bespoke Seating Solutions

AKRI Snap continues Furnitubes’ innovative approach to develop products that marry functionality with sustainable practices from factory floor to final location. 

Each AKRI Snap panel is crafted from 80% recycled mild steel coated with their proprietary triple-process powder coating method to provide a long-lasting and durable solution. AKRI Snap also includes the use of a selection of sustainably sourced timbers, including Furnitubes’ own Endura® thermally-modified ash and FSC-certified Iroko wood. 

This latest edition of AKRI builds on a tradition of fully embracing, and using,  sustainability practices to create products with a greater benefit for both end-user and the environment, and to making these products accessible to a variety of industry professionals. By prioritising faster lead times and quick delivery, AKRI Snap is positioned to fulfil project obligations with a cost-effective and quick designer alternative with the same level of high visual appeal and customisation. Like others in the AKRI range, AKRI Snap is ARUP-certified and suitable for installation in several areas.  

"Our existing AKRI ranges proved really popular, and so we thought about expanding that popularity to better serve clients who might have a particular planter set up in mind, but who really need the product to both look exactly as they envisioned, and to also be delivered within a very reduced time-frame,” says Lauren Walls, design engineer at Furnitubes, “the great thing about AKRI Snap is that what you design on the configurator is what you get - we’ll receive the required set of components and parts, and we deliver what the client wants. It really brings modularity to life.” 

Standardising Sustainability

AKRI Snap is a standardised reiteration of a fully bespoke solution that takes a matter of weeks from ideation to installation. This reduces the need for design time and minimises lead-times for project completion. Built in Furnitubes’ own factory in Kent, it is flat-packed for low transport emissions and less environmental impact, and can be easily put together and installed on-site in comparison to more complex bespoke solutions. 

AKRI Snap can be affixed both within a street environment and bolted in place, or on a rooftop with the included pedestal and tray system, allowing for the planter to be free-standing while maintaining rigorous safety measures due to its unique self-bolting system. The AKRI Snap walling system provides a place for planting regardless of location, following through on Furnitubes’ promise to ‘green the grey’. 

Key features of AKRI Snap include: 

• Easy-build accessibility.
• Multiple planter configurations available.  
• Faster lead times and engineering within a maximum of 6 weeks.
• ARUP-tested materials for guaranteed successful end result. 
• FSC-certified Iroko and Endura® thermally-treated ash for durable, low-maintenance timber with long-lasting visual appeal. 
• Powder-coated mild steel and untreated corten panels for robust walling system. 

Increasing access to better solutions

Furnitubes’ commitment towards sustainability comes hand in hand with a desire to increase access to environmentally-friendly solutions and materials to the wider public. This is in tandem with their ongoing efforts to make the sustainable choice the easy, cost-effective solution for public planters and urban design and increase the potential for greenery and biodiversity in heavily urbanised areas. By continuously widening their product range with innovative approaches to urban design, Furnitubes continues to make a better-built world an increasingly viable reality. 

Catherine Barratt, managing director of Furnitubes, states, “while the launch of AKRI Snap continues to diversify our product line, it’s also an additional step for us towards seeing the future we want come to life. Our priority as Furnitubes is to give everyone the opportunity to use environmentally-friendly materials and products to create an urban world that we all want to live in, and to bring back a little bit of the greenery that was lost during previous years of development. As our most accessible planter and seating solution, AKRI Snap is a big step forward for Furnitubes as a company, but we’re also confident it’s a big step forward for the industry as a whole to move towards practices that are better for us and the communities we live in in the long-run.”

Availability

AKRI Snap will be available for order from 12th August. For more information about AKRI Snap and other Furnitubes products, please visit www.furnitubes.com or contact our Specifications Manager Gurvinder Kharood. 

About Furnitubes

Furnitubes has been at the forefront of outdoor urban furniture design and manufacturing for over 70 years. With a commitment to transforming outdoor urban spaces into realms of well-being, Furnitubes continues to lead the industry in innovative, sustainable, and community-focused solutions.