Tag Archive for 'cardboard'

Recompute: A Fully Functioning Cardboard Computer!

carla published on January 13, 2010 in build and technology. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Industrial designer, Brenden Macaluso has designed a fully working computer made out of cardboard. In seeing all of the waste involved in the disposal of these machines, he asked himself a simple question: if most of the stuff inside our computers isn’t required for it to function, can I replace those with more of a biodegradable material such as cardboard and still have it work?

His answer was a most definite, yes. And the “Recompute” has entered production and should even be available for purchase in weeks!

Here is the man, himself, to describe some of the details for us:

Amazing! You hear that SuperForesters? All it takes is a hard drive, a motherboard, a processor and some memory, and a power supply. Why use what you don’t need, right?

You can read more about the Recompute on their website!

(via the next web!)

These Stools Are Deceptively Strong

april published on November 25, 2009 in zeitgeist. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Hey SuperForesters,

Check out designer Anthony Dann’s cool cardboard stools! From the website: “Taking advantage of the deceptive strength of triangular folding, the designs are engineered to withstand all the rigors of heavy use.” Yes, cardboard stools = deceptively strong!

 

seat3

These designs won the 2007 Launch Pad award for Sustainability.

seatThe materials are chosen for their recycled and recyclable content, and manufacture is local as a social and environmental choice.

seat2My, don’t those apples look crisp?

PS SuperForester Julius pointed out some DIY ones back in 08 called Foldschool. Check them out here.

Love,
April

Patricia’s Journal: Three Uses for Scrap Cardboard?

patricia published on November 4, 2009 in build and superforest journal. 7 Comments Tags: , , , .

(or What You Can Do With A Little Bonus Time, Minimal Skill, and A Measure of Enthusiasm)

Hello hello SuperForest,

I hope this fine Wednesday finds you well! I got an unexpected early-doors exit from work today, and decided to put a couple of hours to use constructing (with a craft knife and glue gun) a nifty little shelving unit for my shoes and general miscellany:

shelving

On my walk home I go past a lot of businesses, often with large amounts of cardboard left on the street – just begging to be side-cycled (I hesitate to say “up”;) into a made to measure storage solution. I also come across a lot of handy-sized boxes… what to do, what to do…

bookcase

reboxes

Yes! bookshelves and re-cycle/use boxes (and nary a glue gun or penny required for those!). To demonstrate how easy it was – in case any lovely SuperForesters fancy some entry-level box-furnishing – I’ll share the how-to (which is admittedly self-evident from the photos): for the top shelving I drew a picture of the sort of shelves I wanted – nothing technical, just which lengths were supposed to be the same – measured the card, cut it and glued it together, for the bookshelves I …stacked the boxes (and yes, colour coded the books – it seemed too straightforward otherwise.  The boxes were made for carrying documents and are quite sturdy – they’re still going strong after 5 months) and for the re-boxes, I just painted the lids and cut out the lettering I wanted. No engineering expertise or power tools involved;)

Whilst none of the above is as accomplished (or, honestly, likely as durable) as SuperForester Jo’s fabulous Flat Files or Jackson’s beautiful bench, I’m pretty pleased with them, and I like to think the rescued cardboard is happier too.

Love

P

Eco Incorporated’s ‘Green Box’ – Finally, a Pizza Box for World 2.0!

jackson published on July 8, 2009 in food, technology and zeitgeist. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Pizza box win!

You wish you’d thought of it first. I sure do…

Foldschool!

julius published on August 18, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

A few weeks ago Superforester Niki posted something about the lovely Cardboarddesigns. But that stuff is pretty expensive. Here’s an alternative for you. The foldschool.

Established by the Swiss architect Nicola Enrico Stäubli, foldschool is aimed at the DIY’er. On the website he offers three designs which can be created by everyone. There’s a stool, a chair and a rocker (in this case not being someone singing rock songs but a rocking chair).

Ok so how does the thing work? You download a PDF with the design in it, print it, get some cardboard sheets, stick the design template on and you cut, fold and glue.

And you have your very own piece of cardboard furniture! The best part is that you can use cardboard from packaging and thus recycle a box into a chair.
It’s a bit unfortunate that the designs are created for child use. But according to Stäubli all the designs are strong enough to carry adult weight (see the above picture).

-jdh

SuperForester Julius Presents: The Cardboard Bicycle!

jackson published on July 26, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Hello All,

Happy happy Monday!
We’ve got another new contributor to SuperForest: Mr. Julius de Hond!
May we proudly present SuperForester Julius’s first piece:

Hello dear readers of SuperForest,

My name is Julius de Hond and since a short while I can proudly call myself the newest member of the SF team. I found SuperForest through the official website of Jason Mraz. Yes that is indeed the Virginia located singer-songwriter (he inspires me a lot by the way, but I’ll get to that later). Anyway, Mraz features SF in his links section accompanied with a little snippet of text saying “My favorite blog! So many great ideas and alternative art projects”. Well I just had to check that out.
But who is that I actually? Well as said previously I’m Julius de Hond and I like Jason Mraz. I’m living in the Netherlands and going to – what I believe Americans call – highschool. Since I’m near done in there I plan on going to university and study Applied Physics. That basically wraps it up for my career at this point in time.

Furthermore I enjoy rowing in my spare time. It’s good for your physical condition and when the weather is nice it also gives a great experience (you should try it). I also like music (listening to, not making it), photography (making it as well as looking at it), modern art, literature (that includes Shakespeare and A Clockwork Orange) and blogging. I’ve started blogging about a year ago for a Dutch blog. This really encouraged me to start for myself and I did, casuquo.org became mine. I like to write about anything that interests me. That includes science, politics, people, the environment, culture and art.
So what specific things inspire me to keep on going what I do and enjoy it? First of all there are a few teachers walking around my school who really get it on. They don’t just teach stuff from books but they try to tell something. Then there are some musicians and artists who are inspirational. The earlier mentioned Jason Mraz is one of them, his music is great and the lyrics are spot on. Besides Mraz there’s also Jack Johnson, the surfer who couldn’t surf anymore after an accident and decided to start recording music. It’s pretty good to see that a bad experience such as an accident can have considerably good consequences.

Cardboard Bike

Biking is good for you. It keeps your body in a healthy condition, it gets you in touch with the outdoors and it can give a relaxing experience. The only downside of purchasing a bike, is the risk of getting it stolen.

This must be a lot like what went on in Phil Bridge’s head when coming up with his cardboard bike. Bridge is a product design graduate student who created this paper-wonder with the intention of reducing the number of people who use their cars a lot. Because the bike is constructed entirely out of cheap (but sturdy) cardboard it’s not expensive. So the chances of it being stolen will drop (probably a lot), so people have less reasons not to buy a bike.
Furthermore it’s designed in an ecologically OK way, the cardboard is recyclable, and the mechanical parts (such as the chain and some screws) are replaceable. To me the cardboard bike is an example of a great design that is environmentally and socially responsible.

Well I’ve been taking enough of your time now. Get out there, spread the SuperForest humanifesto and check back here once in a while to read about inspirational things.

–Julius de Hond

(Jackson again.
Great job, Julius!
Check back for more from the newest member of Team SuperForest.)

Ooooh, Treehugger had a nice piece up about cardboard bikes: Meet the Cardboard Bicycle

Birkiland – Cutting Table No. 1

jackson published on July 17, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Look at this beautiful flat-pack cardboard cutting table!

From Birkiland = $349.00 + S&H
Picking up some clean cardboard off the street and making one yourself = $0.00 + (time)

Whichever you prefer.



SR109 is
CUTTING TABLE No. 1
a transportable aeroplane-friendly modular cutting-table
for designers and students alike.

“this, is a cardboard table:
The core of many design projects is the design table,
without such proper costumes are limited to being cut on low desks or floors.

The last few years of constant travel and guerilla studio set-ups were impeded by this one lacking thing – no good clean surface on which to stand by and cut it up. Back aching, fabric soiled and head swelling… productivity was continually slowed. Similarly, during university, fellow students were oft discussing the limitations of cutting on bedroom carpet floors, tiled kitchen surfaces and low tables.

Thus, this light and sturdy corrugated structure was developed to meet the requirements of both the travelling designer and space limited student… or the travelling student and space limited designer, needing an ergonomic sturdy plane on which to cut, fold, draft, design or dine. The affordable biodegradable alternative is easily packed down at the end of your day to regain precious real estate.

Cutting Table No. 1 – 1500mm x 1200mm x 930mm

Has thus far been employed as a cutting table, meeting table, dinner table, baby changing table, RPG table, and a bed. She comes with 3 collapsable drawers, Jute strap moving/storing box, laminated white surface top, and all replaceable parts.”

Mummy’s Laptop Case

jackson published on February 6, 2008 in art and build. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Hello All,

My mother read the I Make: Laptop Case post and she asked me to make her one.

I think it turned out well. I employed a slightly different design for hers.
For the first case, I added extra padding to the outside, and for hers, I put it inside the cardboard exterior. I like both designs.

These cases are fun to make and quite quick and easy. You really should give it a go.

Love,

-J




I Make: Laptop Case

jackson published on February 1, 2008 in art and build. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

Hello All,

I’ve been doing a lot of looking at D.I.Y. laptop cases on the ol’ truth box, and it got me to thinking. So, last night, I grabbed an armload of studio trash, a roll of duct tape, a pen, an exacto, some scissors, and an Emergen-C, and set down to make my own laptop case.

Here’s what I did:

First, I got some cardboard, which we’ve got a lot of. Then some thin type bubble wrap, not the kind with big bubbles, but nice and squashy just the same. A plastic bag for waterproofing and I was all set.

Here are my materials:

I lay the laptop out onto a doubled over length of bubble wrap and traced the outline, leaving room for the edges to fold up. Then I taped along the top and up one side. Then I used small tabs of tape to adjust the fit around the laptop, because if the sleeve was too tight, it would be frustrating to get in and out. Looked like this:

Then I just worked for a while and forgot to take pictures, but all I did was repeat the process with the cardboard. I taped an extra piece onto the top to serve as a flap, and that’s what you see here:

Here I’ve taken the inner sleeve of bubble wrap out of the cardboard case and cut a plastic bag to size around it to serve as waterproofing. You can see it sticking out the top. I left it long so that I could fold it over for further protection.

I put a bit more tape on to protect against wear and tear and ’cause it looks nice, but I didn’t cover up all the cardboard. That’s because I wanted people to see that it was cardboard and duct tape. There is magic in simple things, and more magic still in what your hands can do with them. I also found a nice bit of velcro in the studio closet, and because it kept peeling off the case (strong stuff, velcro) I taped it down around the edges. Works great!

Here’s the inner sleeve, all nice and waterproofed, next to the outer sleeve, and my Emergen-C.

Here it is all done. It took me three hours, start to finish, mostly because I didn’t follow any directions. I just kept fiddling until it was done. Like Nero.

The best part about this laptop case, besides being cool, sleek, and hand-made, is that it kept a bunch of stuff out of a trash pile, AND I got a custom laptop case. All it cost me was time and a third of a roll of tape.
No logos, no worries.

You’ll notice that these “instructions” are a little vague and maybe not all that useful. That’s because I want you to see this and think: “I can do even better!”

And I want you to do better. Then I want you to take a picture of the better thing you’ve done and send it in to: Superforestnyc@gmail.com. Then I can put it up on the site so we can all admire you, you smart little duckling.

Then I want you to eat a nice piece of fruit or something, because maybe your blood sugar is a little low after all that makin’!

Have a wonderful and fruitful weekend.

Love to all,

Jackson

p.s. Be excellent to each other. Make each other laptop cases.