While negotiating for our new office (photos soon…) in Lima, Peru, we met a man who has been building extra rooms on his roof with a drywall substitute made from a cardboard honeycomb! Though a similar material is used in some IKEA furniture between melamine sheets, these matrices of cardboard are sandwiched in layers of “superboard,” a thin fibrous stoneboard.

Made from recycled material, the cardboard wall offers an insulation and soundproofing option up to 10 cm. thick that uses much less material than other non-load-bearing walls made from brick or cinderblocks. Amazingly, the walls can be removed and reused because only a 4 cm. margin is lost when cut out.

For all its benefits, this material has several drawbacks related to weather and fire safety. Though water and cardboard don’t mix, in Lima – one of the driest cities in the world – rain is a rare enough event to be a non-issue. As for the possibility of fire, hire an electrician and cross your fingers.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Digg this | Hugg this

See Also: Cardboard Furniture,Stutchbury and Pape Paper House,MUJI – Flat-Packed Cardboard Speakers,

This entry was posted by Jeffrey Warren on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Design, Environment, Social Change, Technology, Vestal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.