Earlier this week, we had a glimpse at "Move It," a collection of cardboard furniture at Tent London during last month's London Design Week 2011. Designer Ruben der Kinderen completed his degree at Eindhoven in 2010, where he's been living and working there ever since, and he's pleased to present one of his latest projects, "Folding Furniture."
der Kinderen notes that 1.) these days, it is often "less expensive to buy a new product than it is to repair it," and 2.) "Many products are also not or hard to recycle and reuse."
Sometimes, however, you need furniture that you use only occasionally. For a party or a festival. With this in mind I designed several pieces of temporary furniture using the pop-up folding techniques. You can fold them flat for easy transport and storage. To use them, unfold like you do a book.
Hence, his interest in two-ply corrugated cardboard, a material known as "Re-board," which is "similar [to] MDF, but light as a feather due to its internal sandwich construction... It's durable, light-weight, water resistant [and] fully recyclable after use."
Where "Move It" looked a bit more like furnishings for children—and couldn't quite be flat-packed, due to the the tubular legs—der Kinderen's minimalist forms are quite (as they say) strapping indeed.
Let's call it (a very of-the-moment) "Pop-Up shop chic"... not least, as der Kinderen points out, for its "excellent printing properties (directly onto the material)."
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