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With all the advancements in materials technology, cardboard has become more than just the “thick kind of paper” you use to make boxes or packaging. Designers are now exploring cardboard designs as a new material in their work since, aside from being environment-friendly, cardboard can both be flexible enough to conform to design and sturdy enough to be functional. It is a wonderful material for all of its virtues — it can be as light as a feather, as stiff as a board, and moldable into any shape a creative designer can imagine.
To show you just how cool cardboard design ideas have become, we compiled a list of 10 pieces of cardboard furniture pieces and gadget concepts that are sure to amaze you.
Refold Cardboard Standing Desk
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Want to work right next to the window or even outside? No problem. This cardboard standing desk by New Zealand company Refold easily folds down into a carrying case and allows users to bring the cardboard furniture with them anywhere they want. Successfully funded via Kickstarter late last year, the cardboard standing desk weighs only 6.5 kg but is stable and sturdy enough to accommodate up to 85 kg. The desk is available in three sizes and users can also transform it into a sitting desk by changing the legs.
Refold Cardboard Designed Standing Desk | Gallery
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Cardboard Design for Good: the Aarambh Help Desk
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The Help Desk created by Bombay-based not-for-profit organization Aarambh is more than just a piece of cardboard furniture. It’s a life-changer for school children in rural areas of India. The Help Desk is a cardboard school desk that transforms into a book bag. Most schools in the rural villages of India lack desks and most of the children cannot afford basic supplies like school bags. Aarambh’s Help Desk is an eco-friendly and cheap solution to these specific issues. It’s cardboard design for a purpose.
Aarambh Helpdesk Cardboard Desk | Gallery
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Cardboard Gadget Design: the Viddy Pinhole Camera
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Who knew cardboard can be used to create a DIY functional camera? The Viddy Pinhole Camera by the Pop-Up Pinhole Camera Company is made of a cardboard pinhole body that has a sheet of film inside. The cardboard camera was created by Kelly Angood, founder of The Pop-Up Pinhole Company , and is designed for medium format and 35mm film. The camera comes as a kit and is available in green, black, blue and red color options.
Viddy Pinhole Camera | Gallery
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Cardboard Furniture: David Graas’s Cardboard Designs
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Dutch designer David Graas uses cardboard as the main material in many of his creations. He creates cardboard furniture like the Cardboard Lounge and Don’t Spill Your Coffee Table, and cardboard lighting like Not A Box and Not A Lamp. The lounge chair and the coffee table are made of pieces of heavy duty corrugated cardboard that are flat-packed and assembled by sliding the pieces together. The pendant light and lamp come as cardboard boxes with the lighting components inside.
David Graas Cardboard Design | Gallery
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Cardboard Lounge Chair: the Vouwwow Chair
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The Vouwwow chair by Amsterdam-based firm Studio Nuy van Noort is something of a cross between a folding chair and a lounge chair. The chair comes as a flat-packed piece of furniture and can be easily assembled or folded down. The chair is available in two models, a cardboard model and a PET-felt model. VW 01 is made of a single piece of honeycomb cardboard, which is lightweight, sturdy, 100% biodegradable and recyclable.
Vouwwow Cardboard Chair | Gallery
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itbed Cardboard Bed
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The itbed by it design is quite ingenious in its simplicity. It is a bed made of 4 mm-thick cardboard that is folded like an accordion. Its design allows the bed to be collapsed and folded into a portable form, making it easy to store or carry around. The itbed is available in two sizes and comes in two models: the itbed mattress which is designed for everyday use and the itbed futon which comes with an additional collapsible horizontal support.
itbed Cardboard Bed | Gallery
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Shigeru Ban’s Cardboard Disaster Housing
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The east Japan earthquake and tsunami displaced countless lives and evacuees had to take shelter in facilities like schools and gymnasiums. To help provide a sense of privacy among the families, the Voluntary Architects Network established by Shigeru Ban created a temporary paper partition system made of paper tubes and canvas curtains. The system is simple, flexible, easy to assemble and disassemble, easy to make, and easy to transport. Shigeru Ban is celebrated for his work with this material, having created many cardboard design concepts all the way up to a cardboard church. He’s the godfather of the form.
Shigeru Ban Paper Partition System | Gallery
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Chairigami – Cardboard Design Furniture Boutique
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Chairigami founded by Zack Rotholz designs and produces cardboard furniture suited for temporary set-ups and events. The company’s products are flat-packed, lightweight, recyclable, and cheap. Each piece of furniture is handcrafted and made of Triple Wall, a three-ply corrugated board made of 70% recycled cardboard and 30% FSC certified virgin fiber. Chairigami’s products include different types of chairs, desks, tables, stools, and shelves.
Chairigami | Gallery
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EYEteleporter – Cardboard Perspective Shift
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And now for something completely different. The EYEteleporter by Juste Kostikovaite is a periscopic device made of cardboard. The device displaces the user’s eyesight and allows them to play around with their vision and perspective. There are two models of the EYEteleporter: the EYEteleporter Mask and the EYEteleporter scooter. The mask is made of high grammage corrugated cardboard, mirrors, wood, and elastic bands. The scooter is under development and will have a chassis made of honeycomb cardboard.
EYEteleporter – Cardboard Perspective Shift | Gallery
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Cardboard Design for Retail: the Aesop DTLA Shop
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The downtown Los Angeles retail shop of skin care company Aesop has interiors andfurniture made of cardboard. The shop interiors were designed by Brooks + Scarpa Architects . The architecture firm used six-inch cardboard tubes to line the walls of the shop and create the furniture, including the lighting element and the counter and its drawers. To complement the design, the firm also used recycled paper for the countertops.
Cardboard Retail Shop Interior | Gallery
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The things on this list are only ten of the many amazing objects and inventions that have been created using cardboard. Who knows what else can be brought to life using the material aside from cardboard furniture, house fixtures, and gadgets? What other cardboard creations should be on this list? Let us know below or send us a message on Facebook or Twitter .
Are you as excited about this stuff as we are? Check out these other paper-obsessed feature articles:
- Papercraft Perfection : 10 Amazing Master Origami Artists
- Pinhole Photography: 10 Paper Cameras For Photograph Purists
In the not-too-distant future, we might all be printing our style accessories at home. The people at United Nude have envisioned this future in a new series of 3D printed footwear designed by some of the world’s greatest living architects. The United Nude 3D Printed Shoes collection features designs by Zaha Hadid, Fernando Romero, Ross Lovegrove and more — all printed using 3DSystems technology.
This week at Salone del Mobile in Milan, Italy, United Nude and other brands are revealing their latest innovations to a design-minded audience. While the event is focused on furniture and interiors, United Nude’s new footwear series takes its inspiration from architectural concepts. United Nude teamed up with 3DSystems, a 3D printing company, and invited five architects to join the project.
The United Nude 3D Printed Shoes concept, titled “ Re-Inventing Shoes “, features five designs by five celebrated architects and designers. These include Ben Van Berkel, Zaha Hadid, Ross Lovegrove, Fernando Romero and Michael Young. Each has its own distinct identity, varied in the spirit of design, but produced with the same 3D printing system. Hadid’s “Flames” shoes are sharp and dynamic. Romero’s “Ammonite” shoes are symmetrical and arthropodic. Each shoe is very different from the next, and the whole set shows just how flexible 3D printing technology can be.
For now, the United Nude 3D Printed Shoes concept is a short-run, prototype only project. However, it might be pretty simple to scale this project into wider production. With 3D printing, the design is the hard part, and this has already been completed by some of the biggest names in the business. The next step would be to print them for shipping, or alternatively, release the designs so fans can attempt to create them closer to home.
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United Nude 3D Printed Shoes | Gallery
