People are making furniture out of cardboard. It looks like this
In the wealthy neighborhood of Mayfair in London, Gallery Fumi — a contemporary design space — is showcasing a new collection of furniture. This would be no surprise were it not for the incongruous material these chairs and tables are made from — cardboard.Video above: Watch one woman make a DIY cardboard coffee table”Box” has been designed by British furniture designer Max Lamb, and utilizes cardboard boxes that had been building up in his studio. “I find it very difficult to throw things away”, he said, sitting on one of his creations. He finds beauty, he added, “in rubbish, or things that already exist and have already been disposed of.”Although it is one of the cheapest materials available, and often discarded, cardboard is increasingly being used to create both high-end and affordable furniture. While various designers are experimenting with the material to craft provocative pieces, others are harnessing its potential as a seemingly sustainable option for furnishing your home.Lamb cut, folded, assembled and layered cardboard boxes, and also used the material to create layers of paper maché. What has resulted is an intriguing collection of furniture, that retains elements of cardboard box aesthetics — cubist forms and packaging logos — but develops them with unexpected sculptural molding, compositions and earthy paints.Despite the material’s perception as flimsy, the pieces have been designed to withstand practical use. Their strength results from the way Lamb built up layers of corrugated cardboard — the most impact-resistant kind — and used a glue-like mix of wheat and water.Lamb’s new work fits into an ongoing story of cardboard furniture, with an iconic early example being Frank Gehry’s 1972 “Wiggle Side Chair,” part of the “Easy Edges” series the architect designed which embraced the unexpected strength and sculptural potential of layered corrugated cardboard. As a student, Lamb … Read the rest