Eindhoven grad and designer Thomas Linssen, operating under his Studio ThoL brand, has combined two old things--a chair and a bathtub--and combined them to make one new thing: A tub made using chairmaking techniques, and skinned in a polyester composite.
Romans carved tubs out of stone, cowboys used large tin buckets, suburbanites had porcelain; but as Linssen points out, "due to science there are now many more materials available." Read his full description of the project, which he terms an "evolution," here.