Cardboard, you abundantly mundane material, what would we do without you? Or rather, what else can we do with you? We’ve already featured some interesting uses of cardboard including furniture, as a structural component, and even a coffin. So we’d like to add one more to the “things to do with cardboard” file, that of a… room?
Finnish designers Esa Ruskeepää, Martti Kalliala and Martin Lukasczyk, took 720 sheets of 7mm corrugated cardboard, cut each one of them as per the detailed plans, and without any fixings or glue, stacked them together to create a really cool looking sound room for listening to music. The cardboard provides all the insulation required for this room. The design was originally done for a design contest by the University of Art and Design Helsinki and has won three other awards including one from Architectural Review.
15 Responses to “INHABITABLE CARDBOARD ROOMS”
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this is amazing..how did u do this
so, it looks cool, and i’ll wager is an absurdly acoustically dead space, but how much does it weigh, can it be leaned on, and that’s a lot of tree bits to recycle when you spill a soda on it, or try to mop the floor.
Probably manufactured with a large format laser cutter with CAD templates. Essentially you would create a sculptural volume and then segment it and direct that information into the machine to cut it. The material is probably coated so that it resists moisture and may even be fire-rated. Definitely solid and can be leaned on. Really lovely.
Hope they don’t leave that light on too long! or fall asleep with a cigarette burning, or live in a hot, dry climate, etc. That place is a fire hazard!!
Now this is thinking outside the ??? hmm, make that inside ??? hmm, ok, this is the box! Yes it has it short comings but it’s creative and inspiring – good for temp rooms in cavernous speace.
What kind of toxic chemicals would have to be used to ‘fireproof’ this structure and would they off-gas so as to be inhaled and rub off on clothing and skin ? What about corrugated plastic cardboard instead ?
Yeah it’s nifty looking, but I was also wondering about practicality.
HOWEVER, for a sound-absorbing room, this must be awesomely cheap!! Which makes it a candidate to replace other expensive options!
Richie asked about fire retardant chemicals that might be used on this project. Here’s a story from the Seattle Times about a possible ban on fire retardant chemicals called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE’s) and decabromo diphenyl ether.
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=pbde21m&date=20060121&query=flame+retardant
In the text of the story they state: “While the risk to humans is not yet fully clear, the chemicals can alter brain development and cause reproductive problems in laboratory animals. (Washington) State officials want to halt the use of PBDEs now as a precaution.”
it looks like similar idea from ‘glass house competition’ winning entry…around 1993 if i am not mistaken..same idea except it uses glass and laid vertically!!
i’m not convinced that this is good for anything. it’s certainly cool; but, for me, it’s an enormous waste of material. it’s a one -liner that is still ‘inside the box’. for a rectangular (and more spatially potent) version, visit Ini Ani, by LTL. It is located in New York, in the Lower East Side.
quite the remarkable thing might seem novel but with a little bit of enginuity more eco friendly than plastic
i run a manufacturing plant in oklahoma and have a great deal of cardboard. I do try to reccyle everything but some months the cardboard boxes that accummulate is amazing. Any ideas on something that I could do-make-create-use the large amount of cardboard that I collect. Hope you can give an idea or direct me on how to use this. Our company is green! Deborah Lewis
if anyone knows where to get the plans and details of the cost please write me at internetmartin@gmail.com
necesidad de comprobar:)
Hello !
I’m new on this forum so I introduce me…
My name is Jason I’m 24 years old, I’m Spanish.
I like: Tennis and dogs…
Nice to meet you