Lowering the environmental impact of the construction industry means finding new materials to build with. In India, an architecture studio turned to an unlikely material to build a beautiful cafe: cardboard. Apart from the core, shell, and appliances in the cafe, everything has been made from cardboard, which is both a biodegradable and recyclable material. Walls, chairs, tables and even lampshades have all been sculpted from pieces of the corrugated material. To make the stylish curves that define many of the pieces of furniture within the cafe, the architects had to make precise cuts of the multi-layered cardboard, which slots together with other cardboard elements. As well as being an environmentally friendly material, it’s also a great insulating material that absorbs sound well in the noisy cafe environment. The Indian cafe isn’t the only one using cardboard as a building material. In Amsterdam, a design collective devised modular housing system that uses interlocking pieces of cardboard to form a house frame that can be assembled in under 24 hours.
This stylish cafe is made almost entirely out of cardboard
More of Today's Solutions
How robots and drones are cleaning the ocean floor across Europe
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most ocean cleanup efforts work on the same assumption: the problem floats. Skim the surface, collect the plastic, ...
Read MoreHummingbird migration 2026: when they’ll reach your garden and how to get ready
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Right now, somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico, a hummingbird that weighs less than a nickel is crossing ...
Read MoreThrills and chills: how horror films can improve your mental health
The mere mention of legendary horror films such as "The Exorcist" and "Silent Night, Deadly Night" conjures up images of terror and revulsion. But ...
Read MoreIrish town’s Smartphone ban offers blueprint for digital balance and ki...
The daily quandary of when to introduce smartphones to tweens resonates with parents worldwide. Greystones, County Wicklow, in Ireland, however, didn't just grapple with ...
Read More
