Treehugger: Office Waste Put to Good Use

Cerentha Harris — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:39:10 +0000

Cardboard is a versatile material, whether it’s used as mulch, furniture or complex computer-generated columns supported by it (hello Shigeru Ban); meanwhile, Manchester-based design company Lazerian created this nifty structure out of recycled cardboard and pallets, a kind of indoor cocoon that thinks outside of the cardboard box.

Designer Liam Hopkins of Lazerian describes “Pupa” as a “habitat” for the London headquarters of Bloomberg. The form and aesthetics are inspired by natural habitats – cocoons, bee hives, spiders nests and weaver birds nests. The ceiling assumes the appearance of a shelter; snug and cave like, but also references the vaulted ceilings of church naves.Hopkins calls the construction effort a “Sisyphean task,” similar to what birds or insects may undertake when building their habitats. In total, the numbers of the components used were impressive: 3,972 triangular cardboard borders make up frame, 3,972 triangle inners fill the exoskeleton providing the cover, 180 wooden pallets taken apart for chair frame and legs, 11,000 nails removed from wooden pallets, 252 leather offcuts from make up the chair seats.

Using computer-aided design, the structure’s triangular components were laid out individually, cut and glued by hand into the final form, and connected to the ceiling via thin tensile supports. The original cardboard was too damp to be of any use when reclaimed, so it was taken to an old factory in Stalybridge where it was reconstituted using machinery dating back to 1910.

Made as a commission for Bloomberg Philanthropy by art and design agency Arts Co, this cardboard habitat was one of a series of projects created entirely out of the Bloomberg headquarter’s waste, while providing a new space for employees to chat and relax. It’s a creative way to reuse the vast amount of materials that any institution may consume during its operations, and certainly one that other companies would do well to emulate.

By Kimberley Mok.

This story appears in partnership with treehugger, a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information

Herman Miller blog: Lifework » design office

Treehugger: Office Waste Put to Good Use