Office Built Entirely of Cardboard
by Trey Granger
Published on March 19th, 2009
6 Comments
An Amsterdam-based advertising agency known as Nothing constructed the entire interior of its office using cardboard, from the stairs to the office furniture.
Earlier this year, Earth911 showed you how to make a chair out of cardboard, but Nothing’s design goes one step further. Nothing commissioned two designers to produce an entire office using a “no screw, no glue” motto. All pieces are held together by interlocking the cardboard.
Visiting artists to the Nothing office have already begun decorating its cardboard structures. Photo: Joachim Baan, images.evilmonito.com
The cardboard is able to support computers and overhead lighting, as well as the weight of human beings. The agency officially opened its doors earlier this month.
In all, Nothing used 500 square meters of cardboard to produce 1500 separate pieces. The agency does feature couches and chairs not made of cardboard.
“Nothing is about the power of ideas, about how a single idea can transform nothing into something,” said Nothing Founder Michael Jansen. “Using a cheap, throw-away material to build a unique and memorable work space seemed a good way to materialize this thought.”
Finding alternative uses for cardboard is important during our current economic climate, where the demand and price for recycled cardboard has dropped more than any other consumer product.
Cardboard is still very much in play, as it is used to ship 90 percent of all products in the U.S. While it is one of the easier products to recycle, the stability of cardboard makes it an ideal material for reuse.
Lori
posted on March 19th, 2009 at 9:44 am
This is super cool! Thanks for the story Trey. I’m sure there are some kinks to work out with using cardboard as a building material, but I still think this is a big step in the “reuse” direction.
eric wood
posted on March 19th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I want to see this office. It sounds interesting. I guess no drinks allowed, night melt the tables…lol
Actually, I like the idea of reusing on this scale.
http://www.goinggreenaccidently.blogspot.com
RecycleBill
posted on March 25th, 2009 at 11:23 am
This is cool but we could be using waste cardboard and plastic bags to build entire houses and offices and not just as decoration. I mean, seriously, lets get serious about recycling and quit playing around with recycling as an advertising ploy as NOTHING has done.
Larry Cummings
posted on March 25th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I’m extremely jealous and impressed with the creativity of this office.
I wonder if they coat the cardboard to make it “flame retardant”.
I’d love to see pictures of the same office in a year to see how well it’s held up.
Tushar
posted on May 21st, 2009 at 12:05 am
WOW…
here’s what i made:
A home from Juice cartons!
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